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20:16 [nt]
» Kenyanentrepreneur.com -
20:08
Here He Goes Again: Na-jihadi Ba.la.ha.ha.
» Kenyanentrepreneur.com Well, well….looks like ODM’s self-grown insurgent has just issued another Fatwah. He is now threatening a new round of violence if his “peeps” don’t get the hook up on the crook up. From the Nation: “We are giving a warning that if this issue is not addressed properly, we risk the eruption of a new round [...]
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19:33
Cartoon: IPO of my eye
» Kenya Imagine The long awaited Safaricom offer-for-sale, IPO by us, is finally here, and many, most Kenyans are very excited for it. Ready to take a bite? What though to make of this Mobitelea business?
Click here for Patrick Gathara's cartoon.
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18:16
Exhausted Kenyans Need Their Country Back
» You Missed This Guest post by Sam Okello
Ladies and gentlemen,
It's beginning to look like the two-month exercise Kenyans engaged in under the watchful eye of the international community and the capable guidance of Dr. Kofi Annan was an exercise in futility. After the depressing electoral fraud and impunity the Kenyan people were subjected to by the coterie of selfish officials around President Kibaki, Kenyans witnessed death and destruction on a scale never seen since the days of the Mau Mau. The result was that we drew a collective breath, looked down an abyss and stepped back to let the Hon. Odinga and President Kbaki pull us back from a potentially devastating plunge.
Three months on, what we are witnessing is just why negotiating with people without any common sense is always a waste of time. The troubling thing is that we've set a precedence...a precedence where conceited, selfish leaders surrounded by tribal buffoons will in the future refuse to turn over power when they are beaten at the polls. So, though Kenyans have supported the tireless efforts of the Hon. Odinga and President kibaki to find an amicable way forward,we must realize that there comes a time when recognition must be made of the fact that Kenya has it's share of goons who don't give a damn whether the nation burns or not.
By deciding to negotiate with people like these goons, what we did was to essentially tell them that their stupid behavior has its reward. Is it any wonder that they now want to dictate who gets into the cabinet? And is it any wonder that they can't understand they lost the election? Let it be made clear to the ODM that Kenyans will not tolerate a move to sacrifice the Hon William Ruto. The PNU side must understand that Kenya exploded in violence because Samuel Kivuitu declared Mwai Kibaki president illegally, then the Chief Justice hurriedly and illegally swore him in in a ceremony even the heavens didn't bless. You want to know who committed a crime? It was Kivuitu, Kibaki, Michuki, Gicheru and all those who acted to kill and maim Kenyans after the election theft. I especially wonder why Grace Kahindi hasn't been charged with murder and use of excessive force on innocent Kenyans. Why is she free to laugh at our sense of decency?
The Hon. Odinga and those who support him have climbed down for the sake of peace and accepted to work with the thieves and architects of the mayhem visited on Kenyans. But now that those hardliners are hell bent on holding all of us hostage, aren't we justified to say enough is enough? At what point do we say we've given it our best shot, guys? It's my humble opinion that if the Kibaki side does not move quickly to move the nation forward, we have to act to save Kenya. We need a lean and sensible Cabinet, and men who love Kenya like the Hon. Ruto must be part of it. Period. We can't accept a situation where the likes of Michuki and Karua tell us who is clean? Just how clean can thieves be?
The time is now, President Kibaki, do what you promised to do or you'll soon realize that there are ideals and principles for which our freedom fighters and founding fathers gave their lives...and we are willing to follow in their footsteps if push comes to shove.
For Love of Country,
Sam Okello
Statement by ODM on obstacles to forming a legitimate coalition governmentHow Kenyan woman got pregnant in remand cells to avoid hangman's noose -
High Price of Present Political Stalemate
» You Missed This Kenyan politics never runs short of twists and turns for the worse. Our politicians are at their best in spinning cheap political yarns that fail to cover their ethnocentric loyalties. The peace deal whose cause was brought upon us by a select few Kenyans claiming exclusive ownership to our country’s title deed has been reduced for what it was and intended to be, a piece of paper willing to kiss the embers of political fire.
Now the jostling and political semantics of clean, lean and real cabinet has taken the political stalemate to new heights with devastating casualties. First the so-called National Dialogue and Reconciliation Committee has her oxygen mask deflated. The political talk show is gasping for breath in fear to attacking the next agenda while the one preceding one is yet to unveiled.
The peace deal may have temporarily made Kenyans overlook the existence of an ILLEGITIMATE government formed after collectively raping our national rights. But the evil premise of DECEPTION and calculative politics continue unabated at our national peril. The vacuum cleverly created will cost us enormously when Kenyans come to know how deep the crowned thieves dipped their hands into our national till. Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg will be relegated to the footnotes of politically-engineered scams.
Making peace with war cries
Only in Kenya do you make peace using war cries clothed in propaganda. The clever Kenyan politician will shamelessly broadcast falsehoods against his opponent with the singular aim of politically extinguishing him. And the plot works best when tribesmen are roped in to serially repeat the lies till they start believing it themselves. PNU seem to have mastered this game too well. Their idea is to nip a potentially powerful opponent in the bud.
The circumcision kite failed to fly and Kenyans saw alarmist leaflets for what they really were. The fact that the genocide mud refused to stick is no good enough reason to stop pushing it further via innuendos. The problem is these people still take Kenyans to be the average villager they beat in local school on their way to Mangu and later to Makerere. As a consequence of their short term selfish interest, Kenya is now mentioned synonymously to Zimbabwe.
It is shameless engagement in reverse logic to sanitize Kibaki’s election theft with the counter that ODM rigged too. That only amounts to retrospective guilt. And the mudslinging competition takes a higher gear with Ruto checkmating Michuki. We are simply adding fuel to the fires lit by the scoundrels for politicians. We are permanently held hostage by the ruling class.
The heightened political temperatures only go a step further to prove that since last elections Kenya will never be the same again. Never unless you don’t mind what happens to your backside as you dig your head deep into the sand. We can blame our past for all we fancy but truth remains that the present hell visited the Kenyan shores on EXCLUSIVE invitation of one Kibaki, period.
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16:42
The One Laptop Per Family initiative
» Kikuyumoja's realm The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative - yeah, “nice” - but let’s look at reality and at what we can / what we’ve already done in the past: inheriting a used, older computer to a member of the extended family - I call it the One Laptop Per Family initiative :-)
Be it in Europe, Africa or the US - in most cases we (we as in “the computer guys”) aren’t always around so what we’ll often do is giving them a Windows XP machine with basic software - hoping that they’ll be responsible enough not to click on any strange e-mail attachments. But then, malware may even enter a healthy system through swapable media drives, such as USB flash memory sticks. With a growing popularity of these memory drives, a system is quickly infected and delays productivity or even renders it useless. But what can we do instead?
A year ago, I gave my old desktop computer to my mum and left her with that WinXP installation. She was a complete computer newbie back then and I knew that she would also attend some computer training courses where they would teach her how to write an MS Office Word document, handle MS Excel or even just write an email, using MS Outlook (Express).
Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to help her when I am not around, I initially had some doubts about this setup and asked myself if I shouldnt have gone for a Linux distro instead - also since she was completely new to computers. Why Linux? Well, it’s much more secure and I wouldnt have to worry about any malware infecting the system.
Earlier last week, I’d paid her a visit and repaired the computer - reinstalling Windows XP because I didn’t have enough time teaching her how to use Linux (Ubuntu/Freespire with an XPDE desktop ) instead and setting it up to work with all external devices.
And this is exactely where the problem is: what kind of operating system (OS) would / will / have YOU installed on those machines you’ve left with your loved ones? Yes?
Zakayo @ work in his office (hey, you’ve just been blogged, dude :-)Take my colleague Abdoulaye, for instance. He stays in Paris, France, works as a consultant in Frankfurt during the week and made the tragic mistake of buying a desktop-laptop three years ago. “Desktop-laptop”? Well, it’s an Asus Z8100 which comes with the same parts as a desktop computer, including the battery-eating cpu, a very loud fan, a horrible battery life and heavy weight. You wouldnt want to carry this machine around with you. Alas, this is exactly what he has done in the past. So we are in the process of getting him a better machine @ smaller size and made up plans how to set up his Asus Z8100 for use with his parents in (The) Senegal .
So there you are: an older computer at your hands that will be given to the extended family back home and the quest for a better operating system which *just* works.
With (a french version of) WinXP, we’ll sure find enough guys back home who’ll provide assistance in case of emergency and it will also be possible to connect a mobile phone to the computer (= inet access) with PC Suites that are available online from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and so on.
But then - there SURE will be someone unintentionally infecting the machine with malware and/or or things happening that will quickly kill productivity on this machine. The alternative?
The alternative could be a free and open (alternative) operating system - such as Ubuntu - but it lacks this out-of-box-experience to support a mobile phone and/or provide instant internet access. Also, it will be harder to find some local assistance in case of problems.
You see, there are currently many different Linux distros out there that all do a nice job of providing an interesting alternative - but which one of them provides this out-of-the-box-experience so that any average dude or dudette out there may just download a fresh copy, burn it to a CD, take an older computer, install it and give it to his/her family back home?
Something that will automatically setup a mobile phone to the machine (given that mobile phones / GPRS modems often are the only reliable way of accessing the inet in rural or peri-urban areas - provided that the area is covered with a wireless/gsm network); something that will automatically support most common desktop printers; something that will just work and provide a maximum connectivity and security even during power failures (no unstable file systems, that is).
This is why I think that initiatives like Ubuntu and or the general promotion of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) are much more important than giving out dedicated hardware to users because it’s the software that makes the difference, not hardware. And yes, the OLPC initiative is also nice + my understanding is that it was also developed to create some reverse-engineering spirit with the kids. But then - it’s still an investment whereby we - as end users - could just as well hand out normal hardware with an alternative OS. Think of your old laptop from 1999 and a copy of Edubuntu …
So…if YOU know of any free and open operating system that provides this flexibility and “Luser” -compatibility, pls feel free to drop a comment here so that we can all benefit. Thank you! :-)
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15:13
Another pathetic article from Business Daily
» Rants, Raves & Reviews Kenyan newspapers need to improve on the quality of research, reporting, editing & presentation. The Business Daily is a premium financial paper which should be in the forefront of quality but fails on many occasions. This is just on of many examples of poor reporting.
My comments & questions in RED.
House of cards
Written by James Makau 
Grapgic Illustration by: Conrad KarumeApril 3, 2008: Over the last three weeks, Kenyan banks have been trying to lure investors to borrow money from them to buy Safaricom shares.
Some banks have even gone to the extent of analyzing the account activities of their customers and suggesting the amounts they would be entitled to with earnest letters promising growing riches backed by debt.
This is not the first time that banks have done this with financially disastrous results that did not deliver quick riches.
This is a poorly phrased sentence. If the results were 'financially disastrous' it is expected they would not deliver quick riches so why even bother mentioning it?
Graphic with a 'c' is the correct spelling. And aren't illustrations graphic so why say its 'graphic illustration'.
While the Central Bank remains silent to the issue of banks encouraging their customers to speculate on the stock market with loans underwritten with deposits, the law bars banks from doing the same using their own capital.
In the US and UK, which represent one of the best developed markets, lending customers money to speculate on the stock exchange, which is also known as margin trading, is one of the most closely regulated aspects of the financial markets.
Neither Nairobi Stock Exchange and Capital Markets Authority nor the Central Bank has guidelines on consumer margin trading.
But as millions flock to the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) to invest in Kenya’s biggest privatization deal, they have to decide whether their best option is to invest in shares using borrowed cash or using their hard-earned money.
There is no doubt that using other peoples money to buy securities can produce fabulous profits and big investors do it all the time, however such share-trading strategies come with huge risks that the average investors can barely understand or control.
In order for a small investor to make money on shares bought using bank loans, the economic conditions must be such that the price of this security appreciates significantly to cover the original cost invested, interest rates and other fees on the loans, brokerage commissions and most importantly, reduced purchasing power of the shilling caused by inflation.
What has inflation do with anything here? You are comparing shares purchased using cash & loans so in both cases the effects of inflation remain constant.
In the case of Safaricom, investors have blind faith that the company will continue reporting super profits.
“There is no guarantee that the share price will rally so much as to cover a sizable portion of the loan one may take, largely due to the likely minimal allocation,” said Resa Imbuye, an investment analyst at Old Mutual Asset Managers.
This is what happened with investors when KenGen and ScanGroup were brought to the market. In the case of KenGen, banks were offering customers loans that went to Sh1 million, however, when it emerged that the Government could not satisfy the demand for the shares the maximum allocation was fixed at 6,500, which worked out to Sh78 million.
Wow, last time I checked the maximum allocation was NOT for Shs78 million. A simple mat error but very misleading!
As the Government refunded Sh18 billion, thousands of investors found themselves with excess unplanned debt that had not been factored in their investment plans. For those who speculated in the stock market, it would turn out to be nightmarish as the NSE tumbled in the first quarter of 2007, losing a lot of money for most people.
The debt was taken BEFORE the allocation & refunds thus it was 'planned'. All someone had to do was use the refund to pay down the loan. Of course, there was interest owed but this was nowhere near the original loan amount. I do not understand how the author links the refunds with unplanned debt to losing money in 1Q 2007.
The only beneficiary of these transactions were brokers who got their commissions and commercials banks which continue to receive interest rates on this loans. As opportunities to lend investors evaporate, banks had found an easier way of entrapping investors with expensive loans.
There is no trap. Do banks force them to take loans? Just as brokers don't force clients to buy shares, banks can't force you to take loans!
To grasp the gravity of this entrapment, notice that while KenGen and Scangroup share price has doubled, their returns have not matched the interest rates going up to 20 per cent charged on the loans that were issued and inflation continues to gallop.
OK... if the price of the shares have doubled (100%) in less than 2 years then why can't they keep up with 20% interest rates? I assume the refunds were used to pay down the loans. After all this was not a personal loan but a 'business' loan.
Though Suntra Investment, one of the brokerage firms selling has rated Safaricom as a strong buy, it however warns that investors should be careful. “A word of caution is necessary. In view of the large number of retail investors that will come on board, as they try to cash in on the small gains, the impact of this could keep the price subdued for a while,” says an investor’s note issued by Suntra Investment Bank.
For Safaricom to make money for investors, a lot will depend on how both the economy and the company performs. The economic outlook will affect the ability of businesses to make profits and taxes paid to the Government. All these factors affect the movement of interest rates.
So far, the situation does not look good for the economy and Finance Minister Amos Kimunya expects it to slow down to a growth rate of four cent. Inflation is running high because of food shortages caused by political violence and this will affect demand for goods and services, meaning lower corporate profits and high unemployment.
As businesses default on loans, this could increase interest rates. Since the shares loans are pegged on the prevailing interest rates, this means that investors will struggle servicing them.
Loan defaults do not necessarily mean increase in interest rates. Increase in rates generally lead to higher defaults.
As for Safaricom, the company is expected to continue making a lot of money, but it will face increasing pressures from Celtel, France Telecom and Econet Wireless. This means that in a weak economic environment, it will be tougher to make the kind of money it has been making. The situation however could be the opposite and things get rosy and everyone gets rich. But the watchword here is that the fortunes could swing like a pendulum both ways and investors with heavy debt loads could suffer most.
“A point of caution needs to be given to investors many of whom are not sophisticated. The returns they receive from the IPO may not cancel out the interest payments and inflation which very few have factored in,” reckons Mr Sam Omukoko, the managing director at credit ratings agency, Metropol East Africa Ltd.
This makes sense beacuse its not the author who is making the statement.
During the Kengen IPO for instance, banks were lending at a rate of between 17.5 and 20 per cent. As Kengen’s share price shot up to levels three times its opening price, many speculators raked in tidy returns even after factoring inflation.
But for the Eveready IPO in December of 2006, investors looking to play the markets through margin purchases got severely burnt as the share shot up but consequently slumped to levels below the opening price.
With inflation hovering in double-digit figures and bank lending rates currently between 15 to 18 per cent, it would be a massive gamble to borrow with the objective of investing in the stock market.
Again, inflation is good if you have borrowed since the payments are 'devalued' with time. With inflation at 15% and interest at 20%, this means a real rate of -5%.
Experts say that any form of borrowing should be to meet a need. Investing is a want and really does not warrant any borrowing. Borrowing to invest amounts to a speculative move in that the borrower is at the mercy of positive market movements for them to at least recoup some of the repayments they’ll be making to the banks.
Analysts say that one should really be wary of loans targeted on stocks, and should at the most take a personal loan, and then ‘invest’.
“With this strategy, an investor will be able to sell at his own discretion without reference to the bank. Should a client default, banks are more than willing to take up most these shares through nominee accounts,” says an analyst on condition of anonymity.
Erm, ok... so why would a bank want shares that a client doesn't want? If the bank is 'happy' taking up the shares, it means the consideration is higher than the loan in which case the client should sell the shares and repay the bank!
Some banks have made the deal even more tempting by letting the customers pay interest for the time the loan is outstanding, however brief. There have been cases where some organisations even arrange with the financiers for a concessionary deal.
How is it tempting to allow for the payment of interest while there is an outstanding loan? I thought the 'temptation' would be a deferred interest loan!
“While some of these practices are in line with those in free markets of willing lender and willing borrower, both borrower and lender must ideally compute the effects of both the upside and the downside,” says Mr Cassim Jivraj, financial advisor at PFP Financial services.
“It must be noted that on the borrower/investors side the possible downside and its effects are not often thought through very much,” says Mr Jivraj.
Currently, banks are unwilling to receive lump-sum repayments from these financing deals. At the end of the day, some investors may be exposed to credits they were otherwise unprepared for.
What does the author mean? I can't make head or tail of the statement. Kenyan banks want the refunds applied to the loan if there is no additional collateral pledged. It would be unwise of the banks not to 'ringfence' the refund.
But with the euphoria surrounding the Safaricom IPO and coupled with the massive demand for shares, a number of banks see this as yet another excellent opportunity to cash in with their loans
Nine years ago, banks financing of stocks or margin trading, was extremely prudent. An investor was required to come up with an estimated 30 per cent of the financing while the bank topped up the rest. In 2006 however, banks switched gears, lending finances up to a maximum of 80 per cent of the funds with investors putting in as little as 20 per cent.
And with the unsecured loan products targeting mainly salaried individuals, banks were assured of a steady interest repayments pegged on salary inflows and the share as collateral, should a borrower default.
Most banks are still sitting pretty and have not suffered a bit, although that cannot be said of investors. To most banks, they will have to get the clients paying using other income streams and not necessarily cash obtained through sale of the shares.
Based on the relationship with the bank however, loan rescheduling can be agreed upon over the repayment period and the amount. But the truth is the chance of success for the IPO is not assured. In most advanced markets, margin purchases and short selling are done but again with very high risks.
Hedge funds have high returns but with high risks because they implement these strategies. Currently, focus has turned on them (hedge funds) because of the high risks that are sometimes not well compensated for by the returns the investors get.
OK, what a twist. We are talking simple borrowing here not complex derivatives, associated leverage, betas & deltas. Why does the author jump from one to the other when there is little correlation between the two?
“I feel there is limited, if any, benefit for borrowing to invest,” reckons Mr Imbuye. -
(Politically) Is Zimbabwe another Kenya?
» Rants, Raves & Reviews Will mugabe "kibaki" the Zimbabweans...
Kenya or Zimbabwe?
Polls where the opposition was hampered at every point.
Opposition claims victory.
Electoral Commission goes 'dark' ostensibly to release 'official' results.
Riot police in the streets.
Opposition wins the majority of parliament seats.
Opposition declares presidential victory.
Incumbent scoffs at Opposition's claim of victory.
Electoral Commission continues leaving Zimbabweans in the dark.
Why don't African countries emulate Botswana where elections are not perfect but relatively fair, corruption is very low & human rights are respected. This translates to economic success where the benefits are for all citizens to enjoy.
I think Botswana follows the Singapore model. Rwanda is also worth looking at for sustainable development and a clean government.
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10:49
Get Yourself a Guide: How to Immigrate to Australia Within a Week
» The Displaced African NB: Before I begin the post: If you are on facebook and you wish to share any of my articles with your friends, then feel free to do so by clicking on the Share on Facebook link that is at the end of every article I write.
To refer to the checklist that will help you settle in Australia within a week please refer to the Introduction post in this series.
If You Only Accept One Piece of Advise from This Series…
….then let it be this: “Get yourself someone already living in Australia to guide you and help you settle in.” Should you get the right guide, settling in will be an absolute breeze and within that first week you will easily be far ahead of 95% of your peers who land here.
What to Look for in a Guide
The ideal person to be your guide has the following characteristics:
a) Is part of a family that immigrated over: This is great because you get the benefit of wisdom from a diversity of age groups. Most importantly, there are more people to act as your guide. Everyone lives busy lives and it’s great to know that when one family member is busy, there might be another one who is free to show you around.
b) Have been in Australia for a long time: By ‘been here a long time’ it’s more a psychological state of mind than a physical one. There are people who were here for less than 2 years but know far more than people who have been here for close to a decade. So don’t necessarily assume that length of duration is a way to measure peoples’ Australian street smarts. Ideally though, aim for people who have been here for longer than 2 years just to get the benefit of seeing where you might be in a couple of years.
c) Someone from within your social circle: Ideally you want it to be a family member. If not, then a friend. If not, then an acquaintance. If not, then the friend of a friend. If not then the friend of a friend of a friend. And so on. Work from your most intimate relationships and then outwards towards less and less intimate relationships. Everyone know someone who knows another one who knows another one….and one of those people is in Australia.
d) Someone who is succeeding: Some people have been here more than seven years and are still working minimum wage jobs from Sunday to Sunday and drinking and creeping from club to club without any signs of that changing. If that’s what you define as success….cool. Some people have been in the West less than a decade and built multi-million dollar businesses. You wanna learn from them, look for them. Maybe they are a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend.
How to Best Maximize on Your Guide
a) Come as early as you can and preferably during school holidays. The best time to come is around December/ early January if possible. At this time, people are out of school and a lot of businesses are closed leaving people a lot of time to show you around. Aside from that, if your guide is going to be a student, then aim for the June school holidays.
People here are very busy, going from work to school to work to school on almost a 24 hour basis. Try to catch them when they have less responsibilities to deal with when possible.
b) Come equipped with a guide such as this one plus official guides on how to settle in so as to have an agenda and direction. Don’t leave things to chance. Study this guide, the guide your University gives you and any immigration guides you’re given and come up with a dot point check list of things to do (feel free to print out any of the articles I provide including the Introduction post which has a checklist). This pre-set will mean you will achieve in a week what some haven’t achieved in years (seriously).
c) Put of the sight seeing and ‘the tours’ until you are settled in. I know you are excited to be here (welcome btw) and you want to go buck wild and see everything. Trust me on this one; spend your first week getting the boring tedious stuff done and there will be a weight lifted off your shoulders and your mind that will make any sight-seeing or fun activities all the more sweeter.
Final Tip
If you are being guided by individuals, they will probably be busy regardless of the season. Therefore try to find as many guides as possible. You can do this in a number of ways:
1) Go through your social circle and find more than one guide to show you around Australia.
2) Meet your guide’s friends. Assuming you like your guide, you will probably like their friends and family. We are very friendly with each other here abroad (this has it’s hilarious dark side, but that’s for another post) and so it should be easy for you to make friends (dark side number one; especially if you are female) and so mingle and make friends with people and ask them to show you around. Most people I know will be glad to help whenever they can (especially, if you’re a girl…..he he he…..dear sweetness thank God, I, a male, did not come alone, I don’t think anyone would have helped me out half as much as some women get helped out
)My mind is telling me that is enough information and so we will move on to the next section and begin talking about stuff you should do before you immigrate over.
Enjoy the flight,
Mwangi
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4:38
Critical Rescues
» Cock And Bull I remember the day my grandfather’s black and white cow gave birth. I was probably 6 or 7 years old and having been raised on a farm, I already knew how baby cows, goats, and rabbits come into the world. The birth was difficult and the black and white cow had paced up and down for a long time with the membrane housing the calf dangling from under its tail. It finally went down on its knees and lay down on its side while puffing loudly and occasionally giving a low mooing sound. All the while, my grandfather and I were waiting patiently for nature to take its course. Eventually the calf’s tiny front hooves followed by a delicate muzzle appeared from the heaving cow’s vulva, and I could tell that my grandfather was happy from his sudden chuckle.
Within a short time, he was squatting at the black and white cow’s side, gently patting its distended belly in encouragement. And when he thought the timing was right, my grandfather held on to the hooves of the tiny calf and pulled with force. As if to compliment his efforts, the black and white cow simultaneously made one mighty heave and a lowing sound and the calf gashed from the vulva, sending my grandfather tumbling backwards and covering his arms with a clear slippery liquid all the way to the elbows, in addition to splashing his clothes with gooey wetness. My grandfather looked at me with a grin to see if I was moved by the spectacle and saw that I was still standing where he had left me. Thus satisfied that the lesson in cow midwifery was coming through uninterrupted, he turned back his attention to his cows.
But then suddenly I heard him make his grunt of surprise, and I knew something was wrong. As expected, the black and white cow was struggling to stand up, but the calf lay dangerously still on its side. Immediately, my grandfather kneeled next to the calf and did something that I wouldn’t have expected. He bent his face almost all the way to the ground, opened his mouth wide open and used it to cover the calf’s muzzle. He then gave a hearty suck and with his cheeks bulging with content, spat whatever he had retrieved onto the ground. He repeated the procedure two more times and then pulled back to look at the still calf. And as if by magic, the calf started showing signs of life and within a very short time, it was on its feet with its mother carefully chaperoning its first steps in the new world.
With a happy look, my grandfather joined me while wiping his wet face with the back of his hand. And it suddenly dawned to my young mind that it was the nasty job of sucking birth liquids from the calf’s air passages that saved it from suffocating and gave it life.
At this moment, I imagine a look similar to that of my late grandfather’s on a happy Jesus, covered in grime from head to toe after struggling to rescue a human being from the miry bog of sin. And no matter how far gone, unworthy, undeserving or unlovable a person might feel right now, the Lord is there waiting for that person to ask Him into his or her life. It is when one acknowledges helplessness in steering their own lives and calls upon Jesus’ name in surrender that He knows that the moment is critical for Him to save a life, and acts.
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Identity and Violence (with apologies to Amartya Sen)
» Kenya Imagine In Kenya, violence abounds, as do analyses of its causes and consequences. An efficient way of dividing opinion on the matter is to ask four questions: Was the violence planned? Was it 'ethnic'? Was there ethnic cleansing? Was it 'political'?
We aren't short of people who will answer no to all save the last for boring political reasons; we needn't worry about them. But others, for presumably non-political reasons, will do likewise. 'Unless names are invidiously named', as Timothy Williamson once said, 'sermons like this... tend to cause less offence than they should, because everyone imagines that they are aimed at other people'. Maina Kiai, Tavia Nyong'o, here's looking at you.
Read more from Daniel Waweru here. -
Corruption kills a dream: A tribute to Joshua Orina
» Kenya Imagine Throughout my life in the United States, news of a death of a family member or a friend has never ceased. In the last 13 years I have lost a father, two grandparents, an aunt, four uncles, and five cousins.
Then there is the countless number of friends I grew up with who are no longer alive. One committed suicide because an accident had left him blind, another killed himself because his parents could not approve a girl he was courting, and the third one hanged himself for undisclosed reasons. On two different occasions, two of my friends were killed by speeding cars. A childhood buddy drank himself to death, while several others have fallen victim to that villain whose name my kinfolk are still too ashamed to utter, AIDS.
Read more from Ombuya E. Okong'o here.
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Battle Lines Drawn... Again
» You Missed This What do you expect if you go to your local police station and start throwing stones inside? Do you perhaps expect the police officers to invite you inside for a cup of tea while they calm you down and find out what the problem is? Figure it out for yourself my friend.
Yesterday, in what I am very sure was a carefully timed move, PNU MPs known to be mouthpieces of the party’s most rabid hardliners came out with guns blazing and insisted that William Ruto should be left out of the cabinet because of his alleged role in post election violence. Actually this particular utterance came out hot in the heels of another statement from the illegal cabinet to the effect that President Kibaki should scrutinize ODM nominees for cabinet posts.
Clearly there is a very deliberate effort to isolate William Ruto by PNU hardliners. It will be interesting to see what their next move will be.
In a quick rejoinder ODM came out and asked PNU to concentrate on their half of the cabinet and leave that of ODM alone.
Something else significant happened yesterday. The Anan peace talks collapsed. The reason was a lack of interest from the PNU side. Only one representative turned up, namely Mutula Kilonzo. Meaning that the illegal cabinet is pretty busy at the moment. The big question is… doing what?
The answer is… something more important than the “grand coalition nonsense.” Yep. That’s the thinking within PNU at the moment as the hardliners have taken complete control.
Of course they have totally failed to read the writing on the wall even as President Robert Mugabe seems to be on his way out in Zimbabwe. Most Kenyans are hardly interested in foreign news but spare a minute to consider something that directly relates to Kenya...
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Surprise Surprise: 20 bob Airtime Slows Down Sales Of Other Consumer Products
» You Missed This Even as Safaricom is being used as a pawn in a major power game being played by the duly elected government of Kenya and the PNU party, there are some rather fascinating developments taking place on the ground that have nothing to do with the IPO but are equally captivating.
Many Kenyans from the diaspora, due to their privileged upbringing find it extremely difficult to identify with the common man on the street and in the villages. For that reason this article may appear to be a little strange to them.
My sources on the ground indicate that some shop keepers are lamenting that their sales of soft drinks and sodas have dwindled considerably since the launch of the tiny Kshs 20 airtime card. One shopkeeper in a rural center in Kenya told Kumekucha that last weekend, a generous local personality visiting the village bought sodas for about a dozen people he had met at the shopping centre. A bottle of soda costs Kshs 20 which is exactly the same price as that of “Bamba Mbao” as the new Safaricom scratch card is fondly referred to by poverty stricken Kenyans. About half the people opted to take Safaricom scratch cards rather than drink the sodas.
If this is a sign of things to come then we can expect the lowest denomination card to raise turnover for Safaricom considerably at the expense of other consumer products like a bottle of Coca Cola. It will be interesting to see how the giant world renowned soft drink manufacturer will respond to this latest threat in the local market.
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How safe is Safaricom or Celtel if you’re a political activist? Do the security agencies listen in? I discuss this issue in my raw notes including something you must know about how local intelligence units usually listens in on cell phone conversations. Find out how to get my raw notes today.
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