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14:03
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
The heat is dissipating and the noose loosening. Slowly but surely the beleaguered Finance minister is finding his footing in the predictable ETHNIC safety net. We are back to familiar waters and the mobs are ready and hungry for hire at the right price. Ready availability of a political scapegoat and party only helps to hasten the political recovery process.
The Iron Lady Martha must have imagined that her betrayal to fly kite would derail the DECEPTION gravy train. Well, she must be ruing that costly blunder by escaping with her skirt for cover. DPM Uhuru Kenyatta has promptly seized on the opportunity to politically gather wind on his sail. Son of Jomo is back with all his wits which apparently reappeared after the gloomy afternoon in Parliament when he sat pensively as Kimunya was roasted live. But not for long when opportunism is a prized virtue in politics. After realizing that Martha refused to play ball, UK has dutifully step in to trail blaze the tribal flagship. It is succession script’s preface being refined in earnest.
Kimunya is in VERY SECURE hand and territory. Comparing the Grand Regency scam to Anglo Leasing is to miss the boat by a river. Apples and oranges are incomparable. Poor Daudi Mwirairai had to go because there was second term to fight for unlike now when all programs and schemes must be promptly accomplished at whatever cost lest the wider schemes to auction Kenya fails. The ruling cabal cannot afford the luxury of allowing the Grand Regency saga to balloon into a crisis now that debts are accruing from last year’s elections with creditors breathing fire on the neck of the CEO.
False siege mentality
Play it dirty if the game promises to deliver an accurate political punch. We are back to open competition and raw power games. The president must be insulated from all forms of exposure, perceived or real. Puppets now and respect orders from theor masters. The powers behind the serial scandals only need to play into the president’s insecurity by packaging ministerial committee’s recommendation as a clever attempt to undermine his authority. By reminding Kibaki of the common thread running through Kimunya, his golfing buddy at CBK Ndungu and NSIS director Michael Gichangi, the marionette is left with no option but to play ball.
It sometimes takes a scandal to galvanize competing interests when the common ultimate prize is threatened. Desperate situations call for desperate and tested measures. In the present scenario nothing sells faster than drumming up tribal support and creating a siege mentality albeit a false one. The confidence in Kimunya’s tone tells it all. Gloating that he would rather die than resign mirrors the thinking inside power circles. The prince of impunity knows the handsome rewards derived from stopping bullets for the king. It couldn’t get any hotter than last week. The change in tone and the accompanying bravado clearly proves we haven’t seen the last act of OBTUSE IMPUNITY. Kazi iendelee, na bado.
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12:04
From: The Displaced African
Read This Entry & More At The Displaced African
This is day 4 of My 4 Hour Work Week Journey. Please make sure you read the rest of the articles that came before this one to understand where I am in the journey. Click here to buy a copy of the 4 hour work week and go on the journey with me.
Step 1: D is for Definition (Pages 21 - 48)
The D for definition section is chock full of great information. For the sake of expediency we shall only talk about three things:
a) Annecdotes that make one want to begin their own 4 hour work week journey.
b) Laying the psychological ground rules that you must keep in mind when you are going through the process of lifestyle design.
c) Comfort and other exercises meant to help you define the type of lifestyle you want and deal with the discomfort of going on the journey.
Annecdotes
From stories that show how empty the blind pursuit of fortune can be, to stories of families that have gone overseas, to even controversial Olympic gold medalists, Tim uses real life case studies and stories throughout this section to illustrate just how his principles and ideas apply in real life. Seeing as they don’t have direct bearing on my journey, I won’t delve into them and will leave these stories for you to read.
The Ground Rules
For the rest of this 4 hour work week challenge I will paste these ground rules on the mirror in my bathroom so that I read them every evening ( I work at night and sleep during the day) when I wake up. I have attached a video where I talk about this below:
The objectives of the new rich are quite different from those of conventional 9 to 5ers:
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To have others work for you.
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To prevent work for work’s sake, and to do the minimum neccesary for the maximum effect.
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To distribute mini-retirements throughout one’s life as opposed to “saving it all up” for the end of life.
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Not to be inactive, but to do what is exciting.
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Not the empty accumulation of possession but to become and do what you want to do, whether that involves material possessions or not.
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To be neither boss, nor employee but rather owner: Owning the train and allowing others to make sure they run on time.
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To make money TO achieve dreams. The dream comes first and you make money to achieve a dream and don’t just make money for the sake of making it.
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To have more quality things in your life and less clutter as opposed to simply more things, information, people etc etc
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As entrepreneurs, constant cash flow is objective number one; big paydays are a secondary objective.
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To never have to step away from one’s dream to go back to working for work sake (which Tim actually has an initial for: W4W)
In addition to that, there are some things I will have to keep in mind for the remainder of my journey if I am to be succesful:
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Retirement and accumulation for retirement is only done as a buffer against worst case scenarios and is not the desired lifestyle.
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Interest and energy are cyclical and therefore life should alternate between extended periods of enjoyable work and enjoyable rest and leisure.
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Less is not laziness: The goal is always to do the least work to achieve maximum output instead of constantly being busy especially with meaningless work.
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Timing is never right: Whenever one chooses to engage in something like a 4 hour work week journey or anything that makes one uncomfortable, there is never a right time. Truth be told, it’s a pretty bad time for me too. But don’t let that stop you. If it can have massive positive consequences, go for it.
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Ask for forgiveness and not permission: If it isn’t going to devastate people around you, but will make them uncomfortable, try it AND then justify it. Get very good at getting things started without asking for the permission of those around you and apologize when you screw up.
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Emphasize strengths and don’t fix weaknesses: Leverage your strengths and don’t work in areas of weakness, even though it’s to fix them.
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Things in excess become their opposite: We don’t want too much of anything - idle time, possessions etc etc. Instead we want a life that is more cyclical and balanced in nature.
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Money alone is not the solution: Money will never ever solve the deeper, existential questions that haunt us all.
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Relative income is more important than absolute income: If you can’t move around at will and don’t have time to enjoy the money you make, then someone who earns the same amount working less hours and with the ability to travel at will is many times richer. Relative income factors in time and mobility. Absolute income is just about the cents of dollars.
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Distress is bad, Eustress is good: For any people who studied psychology, then you all know what eustress is: good stress ( it exists, I hear some ask?). This is stress that makes us grow and expand as people in a healthy way. Distress is stress that simply eats away at us and leaves us no better. The goal isn’t to be inactive or eliminate stress but we want a whole lot of eustress that will make us better people.
Comfort Exercises
I have decided that I won’t do any of the comfort exercises in the book for the simple reason that I am not uncomfortable about going on the journey and so don’t need to slowly come out of my shell to go on it.
So I will concentrate all my energy around going on the journey: see you on Day 5.
To ensure you don’t miss a single moment of my 4 hour work week journey, subscribe to the site via RSS or email.
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7:11
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
Read This Entry & More At REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
 There was a time I was mesmerized by Chania river, we took trips there, to see the water flowing downstream and the rocks. The big boys liked swiming and showing off their skills. The Danube is no comparison to Chania, that is why am allowed to stand by the bridge and get mesmerized once more.
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6:37
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
Read This Entry & More At REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
When business tycoon Chris Kirubi was charged in a Nairobi court, he probably did not think the photojournalists would be so hysterical.
Perhaps because he owns one of the top radio stations, he thought the camera people would cut him some slack.
Gosh, he was so irritated and visibly angry as the journalists hunted him down blocking his space and taking 1000 photos. I must admit the journalists dramatize but that was a sight.
Kirubi is also the Ghanaian representative, something like an ambassador or some diplomatic relation of some sort.
I thought he enjoyed some sort of diplomatic immunity. I wonder what privileges being representative comes with.
Just a thought!
Ends
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6:20
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
It is clear that Amos Kimunya is no ordinary Finance Minister. Analysts are now asking themselves the one million shilling question. Why was it easier to sack (by asking them to resign) the President’s close friend and confidante for years, former Finance minister Daudi Mwiraria? What is so special with this Amos “Safaricom IPO” Kimunya? Even as you read this post, frantic consultations and meetings have been going on all weekend to map a way forward. But what Kenyans do not know is that Kimunya’s being retained at treasury despite all the pressure is a “smoke screen” to cover what the president and his kitchen cabinet are really concerned about. What this writer finds really fascinating is the uncanny similarities between this latest Grand Regency saga and the Anglo Leasing affair which unfolded during President Kibaki’s first term and caused former ethics PS John Githongo to flee the country into exile in the United Kingdom. Those familiar with the goings on then will know that many people went into a lot of trouble to keep some certain prominent names very close to the president (blood relations) out of the scandal. Those efforts largely succeeded. Once again this time round the same thing has to be done and that has been the number one agenda in the dozens of crisis meetings that have taken place through this weekend. The issue of Amos Kimunya’s resignation has oddly been missing. While it is obvious that Kimunya was the perfect “smoke screen” to use to divert the attention of the increasingly “nosy press” (who appear to have taken a break from their usual furious note taking and dictation duties from politicians to start doing some semblance of journalism work), questions still linger. Will Amos Kimunya be used as the sacrificial lamb to cool down temperatures countrywide and more so in the August house where legislators have made it clear that they will accept nothing less than the satisfaction of seeing Mr Kimunya seated in the back benches for the first time in his political career? That is a question I cannot even speculate about at this time. However my research has unearthed the key role in the Grand Regency saga of a person very close to the president (see details in the latest raw notes). This is what has stopped many in State House from sleeping too well over this mostly chilly weekend that is now coming to a close. But even more deadly and of great concern to State House is the unprecedented resolve that has been witnessed amongst legislators of the 10th parliament. The battle against Kimunya has been very personal but it is also clear that MPs are taking this opportunity to stamp their authority and indeed put the executive on notice that they are not going to be push overs. The effect of this has been to shift political fault lines of power tremendously with the main beneficiary of it all being the Prime Minister Raila Odinga whom analysts see wielding tremendous powers in the weeks to come. But there is a big “IF” here. And that is if ODM unity holds. Insiders know that this is far from being a foregone conclusion because the former president, his son Gideon and others have been working tirelessly to put a spanner in the works. What I can conclusively report is that Kenyan politics has changed once again and things are far from being what they seem to be on the surface. P.S. Poor Tom Alwaka of the Weekly Citizen seems to have run out of stories to publish. What is it with this blatant cutting and pasting of stories from Kumekucha into his newspaper (without giving credit)? We on the ground have urged Kumekucha to take serious action because this is NOT the first time that it has happened. Surely Tom, umesoma mpaka University my friend and if you like Kumekucha articles so much you can copy them but put a brief note at the end, even if it is in 8 points or smaller saying: courtesy of Kumekucha.blogspot.com. That is the only way to do cutting and pasting LEGALLY. So you think alone, you can’t do anything to change the politics in Kenya?
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21:11
From: AfriGadget
Read This Entry & More At AfriGadget
Following a story on BBC News that fellow blogger Sokari of BlackLooks had already picked up earlier in June (as well as Alison), our reader Zeno dropped in an e-mail, asking if we knew more about keyhole gardens.
Keyhole gardens?
Actually, I had heard about those Folkewall installations in Gabarone, Botswana the other day that are used for greywater recycling, but keyhole gardens were indeed quite new to me. Guess this also shows how many smart solutions still exist out there that will need to be rediscovered and put in use.
 source: African Gardens
Keyhole gardens are a technique used to grow vegetables in a dry climate. They are actually a special form of raised bed gardens: circular waist high raised beds with a path to the center. Walled in by stones, there’s a basket made from sticks and straw in the center that holds manure and other organic kitchen waste for compost.
Since they look like a keyhole from above, they are often called keyhole gardens and also promoted under this name in Lesotho, where the charity organisation “Send a Cow” has been promoting the creation of these special gardens for some time now.
So what makes these gardens so special?
- the surrounding stones retain the rich soils and keep it safe from erosion
- the round shape retains moisture
- compact size, even small plots can be used for gardening
- raised beds enable the sick and elderly to help with the gardening work
- center in the middle is used for composting and reuse of greywater (= reuse of nutrients)
“Send a Cow” also created a very informative website on their activies and published some valuable How-to-manuals for us to adopt this smart approach. Please also check out this funny animation on YouTube which puts it in plain enligsh comic style 
Now I am only curious to know if we could also mix the greywater with some collected urine and use that as additional fertilizer. In any case, keyhole gardens are a very appropriate “technology” which certainly isn’t limited to countries with a dry climate.
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12:04
From: The Displaced African
Read This Entry & More At The Displaced African
Today let’s talk about a little something that we all see or do when we go abroad.
The Change of Accent
This “art form” goes by many different names:
a) Wenging or wanging
b) Butchering/murdering the English language
c) Pretending/ Being fake
d) Becoming “bougei like that”
But why does is it that the way in which we pronounce words all of a sudden changes when we move to a foreign nation?
Mwangi’s Theory
The reasons I think it happens, which have probably been discussed heavily in private conversation, are:
1) Marketing
2) Inferiority complex.
Inferiority Complex
Very few Africans are in doubt that many of us do have inferiority complexes when it comes to white people and Westerners.
Sure, it varies in degree, character and expression but a lot of us kinda know that its there.
However, there are those of us who still vehemently hold on to the belief that Africans do not think of themselves in any way shape or form as inferior to our Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, Western and other cousins in this human race.
To prove my point, journey with me as I go through a mental exercise. Let’s call it, “Why doesn’t……”
Why Doesn’t……
Our accent change when we go to:
1) Other African countries
2) Meet with people from other tribes in Africa
Seriously, some of us can spend our time around other African people from other countries all our lives and our accent will never change.
By Comparison
I actually have a friend who the moment they landed here, immediately abandoned Kiswahili (why do people call it Swahili, it’s Kiswahili, folks, Ki-swahili) and her native tongue and until this day spends most of her time butchering the English language, check out the silly audio below for an imitation of “her linguistic skills”.
On the other side, people close to me have considered taking lessons with an expert on how to adapt their accent to the what I lovingly call, the Down Under Drawl.
I will move into the second point, marketing, by continuing with the game of
Why Doesn’t, Part two
Why doesn’t our accent change when we go to:
1) India
2) Oriental Asia
I have met quite a few people who went to study in India and none of their accents changed a lick. I have met other folks who have studied in Malaysia, and nothing.
Give me 6 years here and all of a sudden I sound like a hybrid between Patrice Lumuba, Emily from friends, Kofi Kingston, the All blacks, Steve Irwin, Mtukudzi and Wainaina.
The Marketing Stereotypes
It’s all because other groups have been marketed as cool (Acolyte, I am aware these are stereotypes, but note how these stereotypes are indeed used to push products and TV shows out there):
1) Americans market themselves as the loveable, uber-committed, individualistic cowboys and rogues
2) The Brits are posh
3) The Aussies are laid back and charming
4) The French are romantic
5) The Spanish are lovers
As to the Indian accent, I’ll let Russell Peters talk about that one (NB: There is some swearing in this video clip) :
And so on and so on and so on. Combine that with the Western entitlement syndrome, which even we buy into and it results in us believing that Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians are the superior human product that we should model in order to become better people.
My Take On It
And with that, you have my take on why our accents switch gears when we land overseas.
To hear more insights on this immigrant life, make sure you sign up to receive free regular updates via either email or RSS.
Finally: A Silly Spot of Fun
If you are not a fan of silliness as I am, skip this and leave a comment below. As I was writing the article, I got the idea to record this. Lovers of folly enjoy (Keep the volume on a mid setting because the volume fluctuates)
Question:Why do YOU think our accent changes?
Mwangi
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9:45
From: dkFactor
Read This Entry & More At dkFactor
For the last week or so, I’ve been pondering a thought provoking article in the July 2008 issue of Wired - ‘The Petabyte Age,’ by Chris Anderson. I call it thought provoking because Anderson asserts that current statistical and theoretical methods will be trumped by the availability of HUGE amounts of data - PetaBytes (1000’s of terabytes), and the ability to process it. The basic idea is that with enough amounts of data, the numbers will eventually speak for themselves. I suppose the other reason this peaked my interest is that about a month ago I wrote about 'Crowdsourcing and the future of crisis reporting'. With enough data, you’d be able to ‘quite possibly’ predict future human and environmental disasters! While large amounts of data exist, the problem to date has been how to process it, and that’s how cloud computing comes into place.
Cloud computing is a relatively new word. Some people have used the term grid computing to refer to the same thing. It basically refers to the outsourcing and consolidation of computing services and resources. I’ll explain some more so that you can understand. The biggest nightmare to most companies IT departments has been dealing with scalability and the processing power or storage that is required to address it. Enter cloud computing companies - which would basically provide you with on-demand capacity as you grow. Some big companies you know have already been providing such services for the last few years; Amazon, Google, IBM and many more, each striving to be the next general-purpose computing platform. Basic services like Google Docs and Amazon S3 are modest examples of cloud computing.
Lately I’ve been following Google’s forays into Africa. Especially interesting has been the introduction of the Google Global Cache (You can read more about it on White African’s blog). Google in their infinite wisdom has come up with a way to deal with the voracity for data on the African continent. Because bandwidth demand surpasses supply, they would store the web on their servers and serve it up to users based on the shortest path to location, thereby improving performance. Some would call this cloud computing at its best. This would save on bandwidth costs for ISP’s, and improve performance for their customers. Wow!
If you don’t already know by now, that ‘Wow!’ in my last paragraph was meant to be sarcastic. While I applaud google’s efforts, google is inherently a corporation whose goal is ultimately profit. Google China is a prime example of how this all comes into play. Search results for ‘Tiananmen Square’, ‘Falun Gong’ or ‘Tibet’ yield far different results within China than outside it. The fallacies of cloud computing start to become clear. If a whole continent outsources its computing needs, isn’t this data then open to manipulation by the 3rd entity (Google) and other political and profit motivated interests?
Don’t get me wrong, I think Africa stands to benefit a great deal from ‘this’ faster access, but I think this means we need to step up our efforts to increase bandwidth instead of depending on a 3rd parties for access to information. We are at the dawn of the age of information, opening up new paradigms of thinking (some jokingly call it the age of mis-information). Just as happened during the industrial age, new products and integrated services are jostling for attention and marketplace attention. Ultimately there will be just a few winners.
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7:13
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
 Tom Mboya is welcomed aboard a British navy battle ship in this undated photo. We miss you Tom Mboya… Oh How Kenya misses you! 39 years ago on a Saturday just like today a few minutes to one o’clock PM, two revolver bullets rung out loudly on Moi Avenue Nairobi. A Handsome well built man in an immaculate designer suit stopped those two bullets. He fell back towards the door of the Chemist from where he had just emerged a split second before. His name was Tom Mboya. Tourists seated at the popular Thorn Tree Bar (the restaurant next to the street at the New Stanley Hotel along Kimathi street heard the loud gun fire and silence and panic fell in the bar area. Those were the days before crime got to be what it is today and the sound of gun fire was a very rare thing indeed in Nairobi, especially in the CBD. One or two men in the bar then (whose identities shall remain secret for now) started running in the direction of where the gun shots had come from. The thing that they found most odd was that there were policemen already at the scene of the crime when they got there (outside Chaanis Chemist on Moi Avenue, adjacent to Standard Chartered headquarters which is less than a minute’s run from the Stanley Hotel for most people). Even stranger was how the assassin had gotten away with so many policemen around. It struck one of the men that the policemen seemed to have been on the scene waiting for the crime to happen! It is the view of many historians that those two bullets were the most significant bullets ever fired on Kenyan soil because they changed the course of the river called Kenya significantly. One of the results of the events of that fateful Saturday that we see so clearly today is the culture of impunity that now threatens to shut down the nation. As you read this a Finance Minister who has been censured by parliament for breaking the law in disposing of public property is still not in police cells and instead clings to his office and the duly elected president (who incidentally was fetched from his lecturer job at Makerere University by Tom Mboya himself to become Kanu’a fast executive officer. TJ did it in his old reliable VW beetle which he drove all the way to Kampala and back) said yesterday that the current crisis is just a “normal” problem that is commonly faced by other countries—even developed nations. Huh!! TJ I know you’ve been on the night shift for 39 years now BUT I just have to tell you, that was a big mistake you made… very big mistake, fetching that guy from Makerere. Kenya would have been better off and certainly much less robbed as of today not to mention thousands of our brothers, sisters and children who would still be alive and with us today, if you had left that chap alone to continue with his lectures at Makerere. You and Jomo thought more of getting educated people into politics then than people with integrity and we Kenyans are paying a very heavy price now for that mistake you guys made then. If circumstances were a little different this is how I would have loved to spend today. I would have gone up to them mountains, high in the Iveti hills not far from Machakos town and I would right now be seated under the shade of a tree eating Nyama Choma with my usual Coke and discussing the life and times of Tom Mboya with my father (a man who still believes in Mwai Kibaki). But more than anybody else my dad is the man who has brought TJ to life before my very eyes and made me read the history of this country like my life depended on it (there is no way you can read the history of independent Kenya and avoid the name of Tom Mboya, no matter what you do). And that is how I understood so well where we are as a nation and why we are where we are. This is the realization that drove me to launch this blog in May 2005. And that realization has been my sole agenda here from day one. It is my deep desire to take as many Kenyans as I possibly can through that journey of discovery that I went through myself and that is why the big gift that I have worked long and hard to prepare is being released to readers of this blog today. That gift is an entertaining weekly summary of Tom Mboya’s biography from various sources delivered to your email inbox every week. It is FREE to anybody who wants it. Get details on how to get it at the end of this article. In conclusion I would like to point out that some of the people responsible for the murder of Tom Mboya are still very much alive today. If you still don’t know them you had better make sure that you read my FREE weekly summaries on the man’s life. Indeed one of the excuses that has long been peddled for the murder of this great son of Kenya is the allegation that he was a CIA agent. Some writers have even gone as far as claiming to unravel some new evidence proving that TJ was a CIA agent. Whether this is true or not should not have been for a few individuals to decide and play the role of judge jury and executioner by snuffing out the Kenyan life that did more than any other single life to bring independence to Kenya so quickly (you will understand why I say that after reading through my weekly summaries of Mboya’s biography.) Have a poignant July 5th my friends and countrymen. Kenya shall be free.
Online IM (Instant Messaging) Conversation with Tom Mboya in the Twilight Zone: Kumekucha: Hello TJ. It’s 39 years today since you left the world of the living. Tom Mboya: Who is this? Kumekucha: It’s the Kumekucha guy visiting you yet again this year. Tom Mboya: Hehehehehehehe. This is the chap trying to cut down a Mugoma tree with a razor blade? Have you not given up yet? Hehehehehehehehehehe. Take heart, son, from the fact that I single-handedly did the most to bring down the mighty colonial government in Kenya. You too can do the impossible, if you have it in you. You know my illiterate sisal-cutter father Mzee Leonardus Ndiege, used to ask me if I thought I was smart enough to defeat the white man who had invented very clever inventions like the aero plane. Kumekucha: Yes, I know. I even wrote about it in Kumekucha. Tom Mboya: You just have to be very brave and single-minded. Kumekucha: What was your lowest moment in your long fight for Kenya? Tom Mboya: In 1960 at Limuru when Jaramogi Odinga brought in tribal politics as a weapon for the first time, just to finish me and to sideline me from Kenyan politics. Kumekucha: Your greatest moment of glory? Tom Mboya: There are two actually. March 11th 1957 when I became one of the first 8 Africans to be elected to parliament (in those days called the Legco) after the first serious political fight of my career. The second was the Uhuru celebrations in Uhuru gardens on the night of 12th December 1963. As you know I was the main organizer. It was a colourful unforgettable occasion for those of us who were there; at times solemn at times joyous. The day that signified the final defeat of the people who invented the aero plane only to enter another more vicious battle amongst ourselves. Kumekucha: Have you read what I said about your trip to Makerere in 1960? Tom Mboya: You’re a cheeky young man. You should know that people change. When I fetched that fellow from Makerere he was a very patriotic man of integrity. Even Njoroge Mungai was a very patriotic uncorrupt man when he graduated as a medical doctor from Stanford in the United States. Politics in Kenya is notorious for changing people so much so that those who have known them intimately for many years can no longer recognize them any more. Kumekucha: Did you change yourself? Tom Mboya: Yes, I too changed in many ways. I was human. Tom Mboya: Have my killers finally faced justice? Kumekucha: That is what I was coming to. This year I have two messages for you. First the bad news which is that Kenya is disintegrating mainly because those who murdered you are still the real rulers of the country. But the good news is that Kenyans have woken up and have started fighting back. You will be very proud of what your youngest son has done to keep your memory alive. You will also be very proud of what the other young people of Kenya are doing to get their country back. My hope and prayer is that when I come visiting again, this time next year (God willing) I will have some very good news for you. Kenya misses you TJ. Gifts to Kumekucha readers to celebrate the life of Tom Mboya.
So you think alone, you can’t do anything to change the politics in Kenya?
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7:07
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
Kumekucha’s record speaks for itself. No other site in Kenyan history has carried more exposes and unearthed more political scandals than Kumekucha has. And that is a fact. Little wonder that the blog has so many enemies. You see the truth always hurts and many times it hurts very badly. It is therefore hardly surprising that all leading Kenyan journalists visit Kumekucha every day to get ideas and leads for the articles they write in the daily newspapers and for TV news. A few times they have just copied some of our articles word for word. If you have never read anything written by an NSIS agent or seen them in action with their misinformation campaigns then Kumekucha is the place to catch them in the comments area (some even make fun of being NSIS agents so that the whole thing looks like one big joke). Especially if it is the comments area of some of the most hard-hitting exposes, you will find them jeering and trying to discredit the site whose record since May 2005 speaks for itself. Important clue to help you spot them: Ordinarily when people don’t like a site, they simply stop visiting it. Meet people who strangely keep on visiting and telling others that the site is hopeless. So what makes Kumekucha so addictive and such a captivating read? To start with the blog has many writers ranging from ODM insiders to some of the most rabid PNU supporters to others claiming to be neutral. The result is a free speech zone with different shades of opinions that you will not find anywhere else. The main writers Chris and Oscar specialize on exposes and insider information exposing all political parties and all politicians no matter how popular they are. These guys fears nothing and nobody. The result is that regular readers of Kumekucha are way ahead of the mainstream media. Just to give a recent classic and yet typical example, Kumekucha readers knew the details behind the Grand Regency scam 2 months before it came to light. Yep! 2 months before!! Catch up with insider info behind today’s news NOW at Kumekucha. P.S. You can get even hotter news on Kenya the type that we cannot dare publish on the site in Kumekucha’s raw notes. Get more information about how to get hold of your copy from regular articles in Kumekucha. So you think alone, you can’t do anything to change the politics in Kenya?
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3:40
From: KA-INVESTOR
Read This Entry & More At KA-INVESTOR
 The mobile services wars in Kenya is getting hotter by the day, with Celtel introducing a ‘free’ call service and an internet service, while Safaricom are taking their customers by storm with their hot spot internet service ( supported by 3G technology). However what seems to be tight rivalry for the market share between the two has little to do with competition. It’s all about the entry of Telkom (Orange) and Econet who are set to roll out their services by the end of this year. Even Celtel, whose customer base reduced by 23% last year, seem to be fighting for their share in the market (albeit a confused marketing strategy) and hoping to technically eat into Safaricom’s market share. I like what is happening since only the consumers stand to gain for all these reduced prices and new-better services. I want to believe that by time Econet and Telkom will be fully in business the highest calling rate will be Ksh.5 with the internet going for Ksh.1,000 p.m. lets wait and see.
Even higher food prices:
As if the 50% rise in food prices in Kenya is not enough, a law that all food products sold in Kenya should bear an approval mark from KEBS as from October, is going to increase food prices even higher. I appreciate the noble intentions of the regulation but the timing is so wrong. For a generation that was raised on substandard goods and services – where even the education system was compromised – the KEBS fee can wait for another day.
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17:04
From: You Missed This
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It defeats any sane and logical reasoning why Kenyans would want Finance Minister Amos Kimunya to make painful and costly history by resigning due to public pressure. We must learn as a country to RESPECT authority. Only the DULY ELECTED HE President Kibaki has the powers to dismiss Kimunya. Other pretenders to the throne in the shape of committees must be ashamed of abrogating themselves powers they don’t have in the first place. In all honesty why would SHAMELESSLY apportion yourself the power to recommend a minister’s resignation while your opinion was not sought on his appointment?
All political propagandists baying for Kimunya’s blood must be seen for what they truly are. Theirs is all heat and no light clothed in quest for mob justice theatrics. Shame of these cowards who are only cleverly angling to besmirch youthful and COMPETENT accountant Kimunya. For starters Hon Kimunya ate nobody’s goat. And if you ever thought one Bernard Chunga had monopoly for bravado UK has done better in defending Kimunya by SIMPLY asking what has been stolen, by whom, and from where? You can smell seasoned and CALCULATIVE politician miles away. The scion of Jomo knows when to zip his mouth and brains. He can only comment authoritatively and usefully after CONSULTATION - when the coast is clear. And that is measured leadership from the front and by example.
Kenyans have unwittingly fallen for lynch mob mentality. Kimunya made it very clear the Grand Regency sale was an inter Government deal and why would Gaddafi deal with a mere minister and not his peer? Simply put we are collectively having our guns on the WRONG head. Meanwhile Kimunya deserves accolades and promotion to DPM for his unrivalled bravery to STOP the bullet for the boss who is busy offering REAL leadership albeit in silence. Add to that Kimunya's SPECIAL and IRREPLACEABLE role in Kibaki's family and you see why the president as a caring father cannot betray his own blood. No sane person would.
Top legal brains
Kenya is a civilized country rules by an educated economist. We must not allow mob psychology to derail our national efforts to industrialize in 2010. The likes of Orengo must stop splitting hairs and take the long beaten path to civilization. Let aggrieved Kenyans take their case to our internaltionally respected law courts. Kimunya is not a hawker or a fishmonger. All his actions benefited from the services of best legal brains in the name of Gichira Kibara, who was the chair of the Kenya National NGO Council not long ago. Nolw you see why the civic society and their noise is a mile behind this top notch lawyer.
It is time Kenyans consolidated their energies to help HE Kibaki build a prosperous African Tiger. Forget the fight for working institutions, they never bring food on the table. Even citizens of the most developed countries of the West are politically ILLITERATE to an extent of not knowing their leaders. In tandem we must pursue jealously the economic growth of our leaders and ask no questions lest we detract them from their clever schemes at our collective peril. We are a fortunate nation thanks to a farsighted president. We have an army colonel who not only doubles up as our National Security Intelligence Service Director but most important of all an astute businessman that cuts red tape when it matters. It is in the DNA people. Kazi iendelee.
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15:01
From: Rants, Raves & Reviews
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OCHL has gone through an interesting year as follows: - Rights Issue (over-subscribed) which raised 420mn
- "Loss" of OCC (Botswana) as a subsidiary but later regained after OCHL's Rights Issue
- Inclusion of Paul Wanderi Ndungu (of CMC & KQ fame) as a director
- Increase in Issued Shares from 10mn to 40mn
- Change of year end from 31 Dec to 28 Feb (see the prospectus)
The results of 2007-8 were not anything to write home about. They can be downloaded from www.investinginafrica.net but the commentary was interesting (pasted below). Clicking on the subject header above will link to a Business Daily story on OCHL. OCHL's financing costs in 2007-8 were horrendously high but the process of a Rights Issue in Kenya takes too long so funds were 'borrowed' in the meantime. The Rights Issue in Botswana was concluded much sooner than in Kenya coz faster approvals. The repurchase of shares in OCC(B) did hurt OCHL since they were purchased at 50% more than what they were issued at 6 months earlier. Plush is OCC's largest subsidiary & has been performing below par in 2007. I hope it's performance improves. Kalahari Floor Tiles is the 'star' of OCC's subsidiaries but OCHL gets only 51% of the benefits/profits from KFT. The other acquisitions (Natwood & Mather+Platt) benefits, if any, will show up in 2009. I have said that 2009 is when OCHL is expected to shine as its cash (420mn) will have been fully invested. 2008 remains an acquisition year for OCHL. Of course, that is mere conjecture on my end hoping that Kenya & S.Africa remain peaceful & grow! There was an increase of 20% ownership of Avon Properties but the property firm cannot be consolidated since it is less than 50%. There will be substantial costs associated with the new PVC tile plant including paying for it, installing it & working capital. I hope the marketing team is up-to-speed since the production is expected to triple vs the old plant. The prospectus had some rosy numbers for Dunlop plant. A housing/construction slowdown in Kenya will severely hurt Dunlop since the plant will be commissioned as the construction industry sees a slowdown. I hope Dunlop can export to COMESA as well as compete & lock out the PVC tiles from China & Egypt. The core product/ingredient is petroleum based & that is a concern in the future. A plus for Dunlop is that higher transport costs from Egypt/China to Kenya may make Dunlop's products more competitive though the Kenyan market will shrink with higher prices. All in all, I see a better 2008 (got to get that PE down to reasonable levels) and an even better 2009. Of course, I hope Kenya and S.Africa does not see a recession or violence! Commentary The 14-month period ended 29th February 2008 was a very eventful time for the group. • Our subsidiary, which is listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange, Olympia Capital Corporation (OCC) migrated to the main board from the venture capital board and had a successful 1:1 rights issue in March 2007. This was to pay off debt used in the acquisition of 74% of Plush products (pty) Limited and resulted in our slipping from a majority position. In August 2007, we purchased shares putting us back in a controlling position in OCC. • In September 2007, we had an oversubscribed 3:1 rights issue on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) and raised Ksh 420 million. These funds have enabled us to look for expansion in existing and new areas. It is difficult to compare the year ended Dec 2006 with the period under review, mainly because of the acquisition of Plush in Dec 2006, which has now been consolidated for the full period and that the cash raised on the NSE, was raised in the later part of the period under review. Board Appointments: Following our rights issue in September 2007, we invited Mr. John Simba and Mr. Paul Wanderi Ndungu to our board. Thus increasing the number of directors to seven and we also had an increase of executive directors from one to two, with the appointment of Mwangi Wamae as Chief Operations Officer. Financials: As expected, turnover increased significantly from Ksh 397 million to Ksh 1.4 Billion. Profit from operations increased from Ksh 30m to Ksh 74m. Unfortunately, due to heavy borrowing, prior to the rights issue, interest costs rose from Ksh 4m to Ksh 36m. Without factoring new acquisitions and due to the rights issue being held at the end tail of the period, we expect this to come down significantly in the next year. Dividend: Our AGM will be held on 4th August 2008, and we intend to pay a dividend of Ksh 0.20 per share on 11thAugust 2008 to shareholders registered in our books at the close of business on 23rd July 2008. Our books closure dates will be 24th and 25th July. Post Balance Sheet Events: Following the end of our financial year on 29th Feb 2008, we have made three key investments. OCC entered into agreements to purchase 50% + 1 share in a Cape Town based business called Natwood (www.natwood.co.za). Olympia Capital Holdings Limited (OCH) entered into agreements to purchase 49% of a Kenyan business in the provision of Fire Systems, Water Services and Mechanical Installations called Mather + Platt Kenya Limited (www.mplattkenya.com) OCH has also increased it’s shareholding in Avon, the property company from 27.5% to 47.5%. Our focus is now on the growth and profitability of the businesses in our stable. I am also please to note that the new tile plant for our Kenyan subsidiary Dunlop Industries Limited is now on the high seas to Kenya. We expect this plant to be on line by October 2008.
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12:04
From: The Displaced African
Read This Entry & More At The Displaced African
Hello hello hello. Today I thought I would share with you an article that I wrote a while back with the intention of getting myself featured on an African immigrant newsletter. The editor’s of the newsletter were way too slow in contacting me and I thought that this article has some insights that should be shared anyway. I know not many of you are in the situation described below (i.e. parents of immigrant kids or people here with family) BUT hopefuly you can still pick up a little something, something from it. B blesd, Mwangi
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I am truly blessed to be here with my nuclear family. I look around at a lot of my peers who didn’t have the privilege of coming with their families and am truly thankful. However, as with everything in life, my being here with my parents presents it’s own unique challenges.
Fortunately for you, the conflict that is currently taking place in my household is a great tool of education and insight into not only the differences in how the older and younger immigrants think, but also possible solutions as we move forward as a community.
So Here Goes and Notice How You React Depending on Your Age……
I am a college dropout!
I went to college twice. I first went to acquire a Bachelor of Business at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. I share my life story on my blog so I won’t go into too much depth, but needless to say I dropped out.
I dropped out because the course I had always wanted to get into since high school, Bachelor of Film and Television, finally accepted me.
I was cruising along the course and honestly enjoying it – we watch and make films all day, what’s not to love.
But I came to a point where I became very discontent and got an itch that kept urging me to stop the learning by instruction and start learning by living life, real life. And so I left.
The Universal Parental Reaction from Lagos to Nairobi
It really doesn’t matter which country they come from. If I am talking to an African immigrant mother, I have the same discussion over and over and over and over again:
“Go back to school”
“But I am leaving to start up my own Internet business!”
“That’s well and good. You can do it part time, but just go to school, get your papers and then you can do what you want.”
“But I know what I want to do with my life and the way to do it. I just want to get on with it, without wasting precious time preparing at school.”
“But what will you have to fall back on if this Internet thing doesn’t work?”
And with that question we get to one of the areas where generations of immigrants don’t see eye to eye
Young Guard vs Old Guard
You see, I see opportunity everywhere. I have come from a place where even with my endless optimism, I must admit that the opportunities are very limited. Landing in Australia, it becomes very clear to a bright-eyed fellow such as myself that this land is clearly flowing with milk and honey if you can serenade the cows or attract the bees.
So, What if the Internet Thing Doesn’t Work Out?
Then, in no apparent order I can fall back on:
“My resourcefulness, my wits, my cunning, the Dole, Centrelink, my seven years of HECS funding, my friends, my family, free education via public libraries, free Internet access, free funding for small businesses if I have a good plan, homeless shelters, the Salvation army, various Australian charities and so on and so on and so on………”
Never Forget Why You Brought Us Here
You should never forget why you brought us here. You brought us here because you wanted to leave a place where the possibilities were limited and bring us to a place where we could do, be and have so much more.
So please, allow us to do that. Don’t let your Africa-specific fears dictate the way you guide and mentor me as I navigate this broad, vast land that is Australia. Allow me to go off the beaten path, knowing that there is a chance that I may fail. However, should I succeed, I just may create a brand new path that millions of African children will one way dance through.
And So We Come Back Full Circle
I am still a college dropout. Every single day my mother still tries to implore me to go back to college and “get real papers so I can get a real job.” But, remember if I had heeded her advice, I wouldn’t have written this article where I implore you to please support your children as they experiment with paths you are too scared to venture.
Since the folks at AfricanOz (the newsletter that I still hope will publish this article) have been gracious enough to give me this platform to share with you, I feel discontent simply leaving you with an ambiguous story that has numerous interpretations. So below I share 4 concrete tips for parenting an immigrant child from someone who is currently being parented
4 Tips on Parenting….from a Child of a Parent
1. Be Aware of Your Surroundings: I think this is quite possibly the most important tip I will share. The way Western societies work, immigrant families usually spend very little time in a given day, together. During these gaps from each other, we as young, fresh minds are bombarded by the most sophisticated marketing and propaganda campaigns in human history. As a result, whatever message they chose to impart in us, by default, is much more powerful than any words of advice you may want to share with us. If they tell us that we will gain worth in society by listening and heeding the words of hardcore gangsta rap artists, then we are more likely to listen to the marketing team at Interscope records than we are to the gentle (sometimes harsh) pleas of a caring parent who we only see two hours a day. For that reason, be extremely aware of what your child allows into his mind through the media, Internet and his peer groups. Which leads me to tip number two:
2. Peer Groups: Observe your child’s peer group and you can tell what he does with majority of his time and probably what he will do in future. Do you like where his peer group is going? If not, you’d best find a way to get him into a better peer group.
3. Be Aware of the Culture of the Land: As a result of the huge propaganda campaign a lot of Western cultural norms are now ours. Gone are a lot of our traditional beliefs in favour of what a lot of us (not myself) consider to be the “more modern” Western alternatives. So that means that a lot of us have very different standards when it comes to sexuality, the relationship between adults and children, our place in society, God and pretty much everything you can think of. If you find yourself continually butting heads with your child, look across the hedge and look at how the Australian child relates to their parents, therein may be the answer.
4. We Are Young and Opportunities are Everywhere: These two are very separate points worthy of their own discussion but I will bunch them together because in my mind’s eye they’re as connected as the Siamese. The reason I did not bat an eyelash when I left school and am extremely confident in pursuing my fortune sharing knowledge on the world wide web is because in my heart of hearts I know two things.
One, I am young, full of energy and as a result of growing up in two cultures, very resourceful.
Two, even if all my ventures fail miserably, I live in a welfare society that has safety nets galore. I can simply live of the dole while I write my second business plan which I will submit to the government bureaucracies that fund and support small business and who knows maybe I might make my fortune on the second or third or fourth time that I commit to a project I am passionate about. Bottom line:failure doesn’t mean I will starve. So relax, we are here. Push comes to shove, I’ll be fine.
btw: How awesome is this picture? One of the coolest pics I’ve found in a while….
And with that, allow me to sign off. Before I do, let me thank all the parents for bringing us here. But we are here now, please, allow us to do the rest.
Be blessed and bless others,
Mwangi
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10:51
From: Kenyan Pundit
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A couple of KP readers have written to ask why I haven’t done a post on this issue…it’s simply because I have nothing to add beyond what everyone else is writing/opining. It’s a travesty, Kenyans are being ripped off, MPs are happy to get back at Kimunya, the sale financed PNU, Kimunya will [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Grand Regency / Kimunya", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/07/04/grand-regency-kimunya/" });
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10:12
From: You Missed This
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 Finance Minister Amos Kimunya holds up traditional briefcase containing the Official Government Budget for the year 2008/2009 outside his office on June 12, 2008. Folks, the Race to 2012 has shifted to overdrive! And it is as vicious as they come. When Kumekucha recently published an article about the flight of one blindside winger in reference to Amos kimunya’s presidential ambitions, it was prematurely dismissed by many bloggers here as pure dreams. It now emerges that Kumekucha’s post on Kimunya was spot-on and a superbly thought out piece of political analogy. Consider that in a game of rugby union, the opposing team hardly rely on their own blindside winger to stop an attacking blindside winger unless he manages to go past the defending blindside flanker (at the scrum-down backrow) who is the first line of defence. Confused? Read on, because the Grand Regency saga has exposed a GEMA power scheme and find out why Kumekucha called it ‘ the Quiet Rise And Rise of Amos Kimunya that Kenyans still ignore – and why I think this latest scandal could just be a minor hick-up for Kimunya as he emerges the GEMA leading light and a serious contender for presidency in 2012. Although the Grand Regency sale took place in 2007, all has been relatively calm until last week. We can authoritatively reveal the scandal was carefully timed to be deliberately unearthed last week so as to decisively destroy Amos Kimunya’s unchallenged grand march towards the Kibaki succession in Central province. Events surrounding the scandal have taken place in quick succession ALL of which were timed to ‘explode’ when the president was out of country attending an AU summit in Egypt and consequently leave Kimunya completely exposed with very little room for defence, maneuver or recovery. Although it was ODM’s Orengo who first blew the whistle at an unusual and highly suspect 6.30pm news conference, the actual movers who engineered activities at Ardhi House earlier in the day were errand boys working at the behest of powerful forces from Central Province. These cunning operatives then went ahead to use an informer within the Lands ministry to leak the story to Orengo knowing the minister would not waste time in exposing the scandal. Soon after, ODM ‘saw a gap’ and decided capitalize by sponsoring a motion to censure the finance minister, but not wanting to be seen as directly antagonizing a coalition partner, it decided to use New FORD-K’s Khalwale to give the speaker notice of the motion. As soon as parliament passed the no-confidence motion, the Prime Minister, who had been chairing a cabinet committee meeting on Grand Regency, immediately formed a probe sub-committee and gave them a 24 hour ultimatum to submit ‘its findings and recommendations’. The momentum towards Kimunya’s political demise was moving at breath-neck speed only to be brought to a screeching halt by the President who also called off a scheduled cabinet meeting and then asked Civil Service boss Francis Muthaura to instruct Spokesman Alfred Mutua to release a terse statement insinuating that the cabinet probe sub-committee report "has not reached cabinet and neither has the report received cabinet attention!" Wow. It goes without saying that if Francis Ole Kaparo had been Speaker of the National Assembly, Khalwale’s motion would not have seen light of day. Consequently, the apparent success of the Kimunya no-confidence motion is now being seen within ODM circles as a precursor to a possible Kibaki no-confidence motion should the GCG collapse or should any of the pending Annan agenda’s be blocked before completion, especially now that Martha Karua has effectively defected from PNU and the men in that party will have no skirt to hide in like they did in early part of this year. It turns out the grand regency saga is in reality a water stop break for Kimunya in our pulsating game of rugby and the finance minister is going nowhere! Kimunya actually had the audacity to say he is still serving the nation and that Raila should resign for being aware and doing nothing about the Grand Regency sale! Not only has Kimunya been assured of political back-up, his godfathers have vowed to break the bank in an elaborate plan to ensure that the Presidency stays with the community for as long as it takes. In recent times, it is not lost on political observers that among all cabinet ministers, Kimunya is known to be the closest to the president and his recent budget speech (dubbed 2012 campaign speech) clearly impressed the president. Kimunya understands Kibaki’s lifelong love affair with economics and his budget speech was targeted at the boss when he announced, amongst other things, that “the 2008-09 financial year forecasted revenues of Kshs. 512.8 billion up from Kshs. 448.8 billion last year, and equivalent to 21.4 percent of the GDP” – all very sweet music to his mentors ears, only that the reality is that the economic growth is negative as we all learnt from Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya during the launch of vision 2030. Kibaki is now being encouraged by his council of elders, among them god fathers who handpicked Kimunya from the corporate world and dumped him into politics, to start construction of project Kimunya for 2012 – similar to what Moi conceived with his own abortive succession through what was known as Project Uhuru. The elders (who are also known as the athuri group) although desirous of Martha Karua in their camp for now, have scant respect for her as a leading presidential light from Central province and are said to be worried that if left unchallenged, both Martha Karua and the Kalonzo/Uhuru axis might develop into larger political monsters and eventually eat into what could otherwise be ‘President’ Amos Kimunya’s GEMA vote basket. No permanent enemies in Politics Shortly before the explosion of the Kimunya Grand Regency scandal, a significant event took place in the political arena, whereby Martha Karua was appointed the NARC-K party leader. To the chagrin of the athuri elders, she immediately went ahead to announce that her party NARC-K had de-linked from PNU and that her name will definitely be on the ballot paper come 2012. This announcement was overshadowed by Orengo’s earth shaking whistle blow, but behind the scenes it had effectively thrown the Grand coalition government into a spin with cabinet ministers who habour presidential ambitions being forced back to the drawing board. There is no denying that the current political boxing ring contain grand coalition players who are smart, super-rich, ambitious and highly talented politicians who have their eyes singularly trained on 2012 and beyond. While Kimunya is fighting the battle of his life to remain in cabinet and in frame to succeed Kibaki, quiet upheavals are building in ODM. Soon after her installation as NARC-K Chairperson, Karua has seemingly embarked on building alliances with possible suitors beyond Central province. Unconfirmed reports say she has already sent emissaries to ODM via Lands Minister James Orengo. Orengo is a long-time comrade of Karua during the 2nd liberation struggle as well as a colleague in the legal profession. A sure sign that PNU loyalties have completely shifted came when parliament was debating the sensitive Kimunya censure motion and Assistant Minister Danston Mungatana, who is also a staunch Karua supporter and interim NARC-K Secretary General, became the first member of cabinet to stand up in parliament to strongly condemn corruption and unequivocally support the Khalwale motion against his own cabinet colleague Kimunya. In contrast to her strong defence of Kibaki during the early sessions of parliament, Karua sat pensively in the house and unusually kept away from the censure debate. Mungatana’s support for the motion and Karua’s laid back attitude in parliament was in effect a coded message to the Kibaki’s Council of Elders who are propping up Kimunya and also an open invitation to the higher echelons of ODM that she was ready to do business. Not to be left behind, FORD-K’s Musikari Kombo in an attempt to catch the eye of ODM captain also acclaimed in support of the Kimunya no-confidence motion. Kombo is struggling to remain relevant after being vanquished by the ODM wave in 2007. Whereas the ODM captain Raila Odinga is sure of going for a second and final stab at the presidency in 2012 or before, Raila is also faced with a simmering power struggle within his own pentagon cabinet as well as in his own Nyanza backyard. A quiet but steady Raila succession battle in the Nyanza region is in the offing pitting Ayang Nyongo versus James Orengo versus Dalmas Otieno vs James Magara. The first two are front runners to being Raila's deputy in Nyanza politics. In the all powerful ODM pentagon, there have been calls to expand it a little and also create two deputy captain slots. A soft spoken and moderate Mudavadi is already occupying one deputy captain slot while the firebrand William Ruto and the no- nonsense Charity Ngilu are said to be keen on the other slot. Even before this, the ODM captain must make appointments to cabinet to replace the late Laboso and Kones. There have strong been calls within ODM that the replacements should be done immediately while other party moderates feel the captain should wait until after the by-elections to replace the ODM legislators. On the front line eyeing the powerful Roads docket are: James Omingo Magara, Christhanus Okemo on one hand while Kipsigis MPs Isaac Ruto and Franklin Bett are on the other hand. The latter actually started canvassing for the seats during the funeral organizing committee meetings, long before the deceased were buried! Apart from reminding the captain that their community was short-changed in the initial cabinet appointments, Ruto and Bett are not hiding their demands for the seat which they say should be a mere replacement exercise by Raila appointing Kipsigis ministers. The influential Orange Women Democrats are pushing for one of their own to replace Laboso. In the meantime, while weighing-in on the long-term political effects of Karua ’s move in GEMA zones, Raila Odinga knows that he must keep ODM united in his quest to be the next president of Kenya and he also has to keep an eye trained on his erstwhile ODM-K rivals Klonzo Musyoka and Uhuru Kenyatta. Raila must also court surplus votes from central province by all means possible or alternatively divide GEMA into as many splinter groups as possible. This undertaking is already underway considering he has effectively neutralized Mungiki and has their leadership dancing to his tunes while the GEMA elders are now fighting among themselves as to who will induct the ODM captain into their ranks as a Kikuyu Elder. But this is a story for another day! Clearly, the blindside winger (read Kimunya) has been tackled neck-high and has not made it to the corner-flag try line (score) and it remains to be seen if the favoured PNU player will recover to continue with the game then outmaneuver his opponents and score the much needed try. So far, PNU are trailing ODM in this exciting rugby union game of high voltage politics.
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8:31
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
Google is well known for snatching up top-level talent, this holds true in Kenya as well. ICT groundbreaker Joe Mucheru heads up the Kenya office, and he’s surrounded by a team of smart young technologists. I had the chance to meet Isis Nyong’o (Strategic Parter Development Manager) while getting ready for Barcamp Nairobi, and then Chris Kiagiri (Tech Lead) and Mark de Blois (Geographic Supervisor) last week before I left.
Google Kenya is Different
I found out a couple of interesting points that make the Google Kenya office even more interesting than before. It turns out that there are 3 offices in Africa; Kenya, South Africa and Egypt. However, the office in Kenya is neither a sales office nor an engineering office, which makes it unique globally. In fact, it is the only “deployment office” worldwide. This means that the Kenya office can be used as a launch point for new ideas and is the central focal point for Google’s Africa strategy.
It came down to a choice between Senegal and Kenya - one French-speaking and one English-speaking, and both with a fairly well developed technology sector. Senegal had a direct transatlantic cable, but Kenya had the right people available. At Google it seems, finding the right personnel usually trumps about everything else.
Speaking of which, they’re still looking for the right people, not only in Senegal, but also in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Unfortunately, Google HR seems to be geographically challenged, as jobs in Egypt are somehow not in Africa…
Dealing with a Slow Internet in Africa
The Google Global Cache (GGC) was announced in May at the African Network Operators Group (AFNOG) conference in Morocco. In lieu of data centers in Africa, Google has created a strategy that is housed at major exchange points to serve Africa at the edge of Google’s network. Internal tests suggested at least 20% performance increase in high latency links, like East Africa.
[The top cycle (1,2,3 & 4) is how things normally work. The bottom cycle (5,6 &7) is where the changes are.]
It works like this. Once anyone within that exchange point’s sphere visits a webpage, the information is cached and it becomes much faster for anyone else visiting that website to access it. Pre-fetching of data also that improves performance over time, even for dynamic content.
This is an interesting strategy. It’s a win for ISP’s (less international traffic means lower costs), a win for end users (pages load faster), and a win for Google (faster, better usage).
The pilot in Africa was turned on in Kenya just 2 weeks ago. There are 17 international exchange points (IXP) in 15 African nations, so with a positive pilot in Kenya, this could soon be seen continent-wide.
Keep your ears open, there are hints of even more interesting stuff coming out of the Google Kenya office.
 
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5:07
From: AfriGadget
Read This Entry & More At AfriGadget
Not all inventiveness is utilitarian (or, business can be fun and fun can mean more business…).
Such is the case with this video by Eric Kabera – the maker of the genocide film “100 days” and inventor of Hillywood - Rwanda’s version of Hollywood. In it he interviews Alphonse Maniriho, an unschooled young 23 year old with an idea: take the classic “Black Mamba” bicycle and completely customize it.
Being a smart young businessman, Alphonse uses his unique bicycle to his advantage, getting extra business from young men who want to ride with him so they can listen to the beats along the way.
A quick list of customizations:
- A watch, set in an old shoe polish can
- Lights, that flicker in the front and back at night
- Radio, for his passengers to listen to
A little background on what being a taxi man is in East and Central Africa is probably important for most who haven’t been to Africa. They have a seat on the back of the bicycle and use that to take passengers around. In East Africa they also go by the term “boda boda” (because they originated around the border of Uganda and Kenya).
Bonus: at about the 8:30 minute mark there are some nice videos of the wooden bikes used around Africa.
[Hat tip: a special thanks to Paula Kahumbu of Wildlife Direct for pointing me towards this story.]
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