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22:27
From: Rants, Raves & Reviews
Read This Entry & More At Rants, Raves & Reviews
It's bad enough the idiot won't resign but he just won't shut up!
Chairman Samuel Kivuitu Wednesday said reports that ECK would be appearing before the Kriegler commission as the principal subject of the investigation were “intended to mislead the public and destroy the commission’s credibility.”
What credibility? It was shredded to bits after the 2007 elections!
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21:15
From: Rants, Raves & Reviews
Read This Entry & More At Rants, Raves & Reviews
| Written by Steve Mbogo (Business Daily) |
April 10, 2008:
My comments in RED
New rules meant to guide the operation of venture capital firms have introduced high taxation and restrictions on investments that players say may threaten the sector’s survival.
The rules are meant to regulate the venture capitalists — who take stakes in start ups and midsized firms and exit as the businesses near maturity — who have shown unprecedented interest in the Kenyan market over the last two years.
The sector is now raising a red flag over a taxation regime that it says makes resident venture capital funds uncompetitive at the global level. This has seen some firms opt for other countries like Mauritius where the taxation is more favourable.
I have blogged how Mauritius is diversifying its economy using brains... while Kenya... oh, well...
Administration costs are also high as venture capitalists will now be required to have a contracted fund manager to oversee and allocate the investments of the venture capitalist.
How does a small VC fund - managing KShs 100mn - afford a Fund Manager? Many VC funds start off much smaller.
Peter Njoka, a partner at Aureos Kenya Managers which manages a venture capital company known as Acacia Fund, said such a manager is paid a management fee plus value added tax (VAT), yet the funds do not have any “vatable” services to sell.
“The fund absorbs all the VAT of 16 per cent which eats into its resources and increases the cost of doing business here,” said Mr Njoka. He however said the new rules would help the industry grow to international standards faster.
The industry might die or is left to the big boys. Warren Buffet does say that if he was born anywhere but the USA at the time he was born... he might have not been as successful! I can guarantee he would not have succeeded in Kenya with its arcane laws, corrupt judicial system, corrupt & incompetent politicians, the selfish NSE & incompetent CMA!
The new Registered Venture Capital Companies Regulations (2007) define the principal objective of venture funds as provision of risk capital to small and medium size businesses in Kenya.
The regulations however give venture funds flexibility in determining the kind of companies they invest in. They require the fund to have a minimum paid up share capital of Sh100 million shillings and proven history in operating such a fund.
How the hell does a newly established fund have an operating history? The problem is the CMA is full of 'career civil servants' who do nothing better than do nothing! Get serious... Unless you invite foreign VCs how do yo expand the industry since there are only (officially) 9 VC funds. So this means no new local VC funds?
Daniel Muchika of InvesteQ Capital says the regulations automatically lock out start up venture capital funds by demanding that eligible applicants produce audited statements for at least three years.
Go figure... Are these guys born as idiots or did they learn to be idiots?
For a venture capital fund to be registered, it must present the CMA with its preferred mode of divestiture from eligible venture capital enterprises, including details of risk factors that are specific to the chosen investment sectors, or sectors intended to be invested in. The company must also present a bank reference from a commercial bank.
Erm, so if a VC fund is putting its own money into the ventures i.e. not borrowing... why do they need a bank reference? If the bank is lending to the VC then let the bank do its own due diligence!
The regulations restrict venture capital funds from trading in real property; banking and financial services; and retail and wholesale trading services as their primary businesses.
What is this idiocy? Why not let the VC funds do what they like! They are in business to make money! Real property could benefit from VC funds!
“This means that venture funds have narrower options of investments. It means that venture funds have to scout for ideas that promise quite high return on investments, usually of at least 25 per cent per annum to compensate for this,” said Mr Muchika.
So the CMA is raising the cost to the investees. An investee needs to provide 25% p.a. return to get funds from a VC fund. Let the VC fund decide what they want to make. Open the market to VC funds!
Currently, there are nine private equity funds operating in the market, five with a combined capital base of over Sh4.9 billion have targeted SMEs in East Africa. But a 10th fund known as East Africa Development Bank Venture Capital Fund worth Sh2.6 billion will make an entry into the local market later this year.
Others include Business Partners International Limited (BPI) launched in February last year, Grofin East Africa launched in mid-2005, Acumen Fund, InvesteQ Capital Limited and African Agricultural Capital that focuses on agriculture related businesses.
The funds should also preserve transaction records for at least seven years and to verify the sources of their funds as well as investments to ensure they are not used as a conduit for funds sourced from criminal activities including money laundering and corruption. In this respect the regulations are seen as porous. |
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17:56
From: Rants, Raves & Reviews
Read This Entry & More At Rants, Raves & Reviews
There is good stuff happening in Kenya but the bad overshadows the good... I know we can turn the corner but we need accountability from politicians & public officials. Wananchi lack the means to challenge silly rules, laws or regulations. We are taken for granted. Water cost to rise coz of a tax on water! We have no say. I don't mind the tax if I knew a) what the money was used for b) if the money was used effectively. Increased cost of electricity. KenGen will eventually raise its rates to KPLC which will in turn bill consumers. KPLC has to deal with vandalism that increases the cost for the rest of us. KPLC is not allowed to adequately protect itself & our police are not motivated since KPLC does not bribe them! Where is NEMA when a lead smelter is being built in the middle of Nakuru? Where are the safeguards? Why does NEMA not provide information to the public? I don't mind the investment but will the benefits outweigh the risks? Are the chinese investors in Kenya for the long haul? While we are it, it is suspected that lead poisoning was the cause of death of 3,000 waterbucks at the L.Nakuru national Park. Sigh... Where are kimunya, murungi & kibz who have been trumpeting the elusive benefits of 'chinese assistance'? The chinese got the oil exploration blocks they wanted then turned around & told Kenya to shove off... The loan of KShs 5.3bn has been reduced to KShs 2.2bn. Oh, I expect the chinese will insist that the materials, trucks & labour be imported from china! kibz speech read in absentia in India highlights why he should have gone for the India-Africa Summit with some tough negotiators ( e.g. martha karua) to help ease Kenyan exports to India. Instead he (& karua's) are in Nairobi... Venture Capital funds are renowned for their flexibility but the idiots at the CMA want to shackle them! How does a new VC firm provide 3 years of audited annual reports? Furthermore, I can understand protecting investors but the minimum capital requirements for VC funds is too high! Mobitelea... need I say more... dan 'thieving' moi has been uncharacteristically quiet. Maybe he is counting his stolen safaricom/mobitelea earnings? While politicians dither - but earn undeserved salaries - the ordinary Kenyan pays the price. Mortgage rates expected to rise since title deeds hold no value in many clash-prone areas. This will lead to a slowdown in economic activity where it is needed most! Well... it turns out that SafCon (erm, I call it SafCon in my postings for a reason) might be lying to us... well, ooh lah lah... there is mobitelea... now it turns out that their definition of 'subscribers' includes inactive subscribers... Celtel has 2.1 'active' subscribers based on a 'chargeable' even in the past 3 months. So how many 'active' subscribers does SafCon really have? The real subscriber base differential between Celtel & Safaricom might not be as high as we were led to believe. Celtel has a better quality network & attracts more business users with a much higher ARPU. Revelation that the 9.2 million subscriber base includes active and inactive clients turns this figure into a reflection of the total number of people who have ever owned a Safaricom line since it was founded seven years ago. “Celtel has maintained its grip on the high revenue post-paid customers since its launch. That means it could have a high migratory flock of pre-paid users who join to enjoy cheaper tariffs,” said the analyst. He said the company makes its money from a stable number of post-paid, high grossing customers.
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12:45
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
I just got through reading an excellent post by Bret Taylor, ex-Googler and creator of FriendFeed, about the need for open data sets. He makes a compelling argument on how difficult and expensive it is to get any type of meaningful data that can really be used to make interesting web applications. I experienced this first-hand in the creation of eppraisal.com - getting good quality real estate data was not cheap or easy.
I think all of these barriers to data are holding back innovation at a scale that few people realize. The most important part of an environment that encourages innovation is low barriers to entry. The moment a contract and lawyers are involved, you inherently restrict the set of people who can work on a problem to well-funded companies with a profitable product. Likewise, companies that sell data have to protect their investments, so permitted uses for the data are almost always explicitly enumerated in contracts. The entire system is designed to restrict the data to be used in product categories that already exist.
Interesting, but how does this apply to Africa?
Depending on how you look at it, this is a great opportunity or a serious problem. For instance, it’s a problem for us on the Ushahidi project because it is difficult to get some of the detailed mapping data that we need in a usable format. However, if you’re an enterprising businessman you would realize how much un-digitized data is in Africa and would start doing something to create data sets and license that out.
Of course, you licensing that data out puts us all in the same quandry that Bret outlines in his post… That by it not being open and free, the barriers to entry are high(er) and only larger organizations with access to a lot of resources can utilize it. A catch-22 if ever there was one.
It only make sense to give up data, or collect data and give it away for free of the relative cost of doing that for each person is minimal. Anytime you need to use a lot of resources to collect data, then you deserve to charge a fair market price for it. So, while I’d love to have more free data available, I know that the challenges to getting there are quite steep.
A few sources of open and free data:
Twine - Misc.
OpenStreetMap - Geographical data
Freebase - Open shared database
OpenTick - Financial data
Numbrary - Numbers
DBpedia - Structured data from Wikipedia
Swivel - Misc and nice visuals
Jigsaw - business contacts
InfoChimps - Misc free data sets
NumberZoom - Phone numbers
 
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12:43
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
Kenya's relative stability over the last two months lies in the hands of Kenya's political class. Yesterday's Cabinet gridlock resulted in riots and civil unrest in parts of the country. Until the National Accord and Reconciliation Act is fully implemented Kenya is once again destined for uncertain times.
Patrick Gathara o .
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12:34
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
Rank foolishness and misunderstanding. Yet another example. Sijui, in a comment at Ory's, says: One thing I particularly like about the aftermath of the Kenyan election is that the average low income mwananchi fought back, and in my opinion they fought less for their civic freedoms......I think that is obvious by the nature of the blood letting.........but more for their naked self interest, as blatantly parochial and regressive as that might be. I now have far more respect for people acting on their suspicions and resentments than the cowardly, complacent and self absorbed ‘middle class'. And I don't want to make the mistake of painting the ENTIRE Kenyan middle class with the same brush, that would be dishonest and clearly there are many who fought the good fight however my point is, things would not have changed HAD THE VAST MAJORITY of the working class and low income not brandished their pangas.
[...]
Read more from Godfrey Munira here.
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12:31
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
A new report brings intriguing data about voting patterns in Kenya. To no one's surprise, elections in God's own country are mostly an exercise in ethnic head-counting. But not always. There are other factors that pull at the electorate, and at least in the minds of the respondents, evidence of an aspiration towards elections as a referendum on the performance of the incumbent rather than a mindless affirmation of ethnic affiliation. The importance of ethnicity it seems is dependent on the voter's self-ascribed identity, with "ethnics" more often employing feelings of group identity and "non-ethnics" more often making rational calculations of self and group interest. Read and Discuss here.
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11:05
From: The Displaced African
Read This Entry & More At The Displaced African
To refer to the check-list that you will guide you in immigrating to Australia within a week please refer to the Introduction post in the series.
Get Your Documents Certified
Do you remember all the photocopies that I asked you to make when you were back in Africa? I want you to look for the first chemist you can find as soon as you land and ask the pharmacist - who is legally allowed to certify documents - to certify as many photocopies as he can.
If he can’t certify them all, or he isn’t allowed to certify (or worse he doesn’t want to) then go from chemist to chemist until you get your documents certified.
Any time you get a document that is important, especially legal documents, I want you to make it a habit to make photocopies of the document and get them certified.
There are other professionals allowed to certify documents and to get a comprehensive list please click on this link. (The list is a pdf file so please make sure you have Adobe Reader. It is also VERY comprehensive so please make sure you give it a glance, there may be professionals closer to you who can certify documents.)
The reason I chose chemists to certify documents, there are a lot more people including police who can certify documents, is because:
a) There are chemists all over the place: including the airport when you land.
b) Chemists tend to remain open later than other businesses (in case you want documents certified past 5pm when most business close)
c) Convenience (the person who is legally able to certify documents in a police station is usually only there for one random hour per day whereas pharmacists remain in their chemists ALL DAY)
Early Tip
Should you end up applying for a job where you will be working with:
- The disabled
- The elderly or
- Young people, you will need to get a police check. Make sure you make photocopies of that and get the photocopies certified. More on this later.
Mobile Phone Line
Most of you know more about mobile phones than I do so I won’t bother explaining how mobile phones work. In my experience,I would advise you to purchase (at least to begin with) an Optus prepaid sim card package.
NB: If you would like to purchase your sim card online please click on this link to buy an optus sim card from ebay.
Optus Prepaid Sim Card Package
The Optus prepaid package (where you pay for the credit to make calls and sms prior to doing so, as opposed to post-paid where you get a bill at the end of every month) has a number of features that fit in perfectly with the student lifestyle:
a) $10 credit: This can be in the form of text saver credit where $10 buys you 70 smses: Sending an sms usually costs 25 cents, this means that the text saver gives you an overall saving of about $7.50.
It can also be in the form of standard credit that allows you to make calls and sms. Great for when poverty and yourself collide. The $10 recharge is usually only valid for a week.
b) Free minutes: This is where you get a certain number of “free minutes” every time you recharge that allow you to talk to people on the Optus network for free. This comes as a bonus when you recharge with either $30, $50 or $100 credit (you can probably recharge using more money but I have never had to do so).
c) Free minutes to special numbers: On top of the general free minutes you also get even more ” free minutes” to numbers that you specify on the Optus network. Just in case you have a core group of special people that you will constantly be calling while here in Australia.
d) Turbo charge: If you don’t want the free minutes you can instead go for the Turbo charge option (this and free minutes are only valid from $30 recharge upwards) where $30 becomes $120 of credit, $50 becomes $150 of credit and so on and so forth. Every recharge gives you 3 times the value.
e) Most people I have met are on Optus, meaning you should be able to put the free minutes to good use and all those people can’t be wrong can they? (don’t answer that…lol)
To get more information on Optus prepaid sim packages check out the Optus website.
Mailing Address
The most important thing to remember is: make sure all the mail you will ever receive in Australia goes to one address regardless of how many times you move.
Since arriving in Australia I have moved 6 times and I know there is probably a lot of mail, maybe even important mail, that has been lost in the mix. To avoid that you can:
1) Use Your Guide’s or Friend’s Residential Address as Your Mailing Address: In order for this to work, make sure that your guide’s or friend’s residential address is their permanent address and that they won’t be moving in the near future.
2) Get a P.O. Box: This is where all your mail goes to one central post office box. I highly recommend this option.
Nowadays, “the box” comes complete with a service that lets you know- either via email or SMS -when you have new mail in your post office box.
It’s cheap to set up and maintain, so please fill in this application form and get one if means allow.
3) Use Earth Class Mail: By far the most superior choice in terms of convenience.
How it works?
NB: I recently learned that Earth Class cannot provide you with a mailing address in Australia. That’s a bit of a bummer, but as for the rest of y’all, feel free to sign up for this great service.
From Techcrunch article on the service:
Earth Class Mail (formerly Remote Control Mail) will provide you with a permanent (snail) mail address, gather all of your incoming mail, scan (the outside), notify you of its existence (with the outside scan), scan the inside if you like (for a fee), and then either forward it to you or shred it, on your command.
This service is cheaper than you’d expect and is available in over 130 countries. Joining Earth Class Mail will mean that:
a) You will never need to change your mailing address
b) You’ll never visit the post office ever again.
Instead, every day while you check your email inbox you will also be checking your post office box Cool 
To learn about how Earth Class works or to set up this service, please click here to go to the Earth Class Mail website.
Once you set up a permanent mailing address you’ve saved yourself a ton of headaches over the coming years. So now that you are able to communicate effectively, let’s hit the ground running.
Stay in touch,
Mwangi
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10:58
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
Today is the first day of the Global Philanthropy Forum. Last night I was pleased to find out a couple of connections from TED Global were present; Ali Mufuruki of Infotech and Kevin Starr of the Mulago Foundation.
I’ll be speaking on a panel here tomorrow called “Early Warning: Listening, Technology and Activism“. My fellow panelists are:
- [M] Mitul Shah, Senior Director, Technology Partnerships, United Nations Foundation
- Mark Smolinski, Director, Predict and Prevent Initiative, Google.org
- Erik Hersman, Web Strategist, Ushahidi.com
- Jan Chipchase, Human Behavioral Researcher, Design Team, Nokia
In the evening I’m heading off with Jan Chipchase (who I happen to be a big fan of) to an Adaptive Path event about using mobile phones, design and development called, “Street Hacks and Long Wows“. Should be a lot of fun! If you’re in the area, come and join us.
 
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10:22
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
 Yet again, for the second time this year, strong and uncompromising ‘diplomatic’ pressure from the American government is coming to the relief of frustrated Kenyans regarding their choice of government. After being defrauded of their democratic choice and enduring unending deprivation four months down the road, Kenyans are still having to put up with electoral rejects masquerading as government. These are the so-called leaders who have audacity to say they are ready for a parliamentary dissolution and fresh general elections while just less than eight weeks ago, they told a group of retired and respected African Heads of State, President Kufuor of Ghana, Nobel Peace Price Laureate Desmond Tutu and Kofi Annan that 'a duly elected president had already been sworn in (sic) and the Kenyan government was fully discharging its mandate!' Worst of all, many innocent Kenyan children are now surviving on meagre rations and missing school while they are forced to sleep in rain soaked tents just because someone somewhere MUST rule this country (read milk the country dry). One does not need to be a NASA scientist to discern that Secretary Rice is today openly threatening the Kibaki-led government, just as she did when the PNU Leader refused to sign the 28th February 2008 peace accord. Undoubtedly, heavenly powers are using the Americans to liberate Kenyans. Earlier today, Seccretary Rice warned the US would form its own opinion on the failure of forming the coalition government and would ‘act accordingly’. As if by magic, speaking to journalist this afternoon, a confident US Ambassador to Kenya said , after separately meeting both Kibaki and Raila, that a grand coalition cabinet which is acceptable to all parties would be in place shortly. "We expect that in a matter of days, or a week or so, there will be a coalition government. They are very close." Therefore Kumekuchans…….relax. You will sooner and not so later read an Alfie Mutua or Isa Kabira press release inviting ODM captain to Harambee House. A truly representative grand coalition government (repeat government and NOT cabinet) is on the way.
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10:17
From: What An African Woman Thinks
Read This Entry & More At What An African Woman Thinks
Ian Jack of the Guardian (UK), appears somewhat disconcerted by some of the revelations in the authorized biography of VS Naipaul by Patrick French. Describing the “uninhibited disclosure” as “bewildering,” he wonders what would motivate Naipaul to allow such a revelatory biography to be published in his life time. French, the biographer, calls it “at once an act of narcissism and humility” but adds that it might also be motivated by a desire to have his life dissected in the present so that readers curiosity can be sated and they can then “return to the importance of his work.” At the end of his column, Jack strikes a philosophical note: “Be grateful, if you must remember his shuddersome life, that so much selfishness has given us such great books.” Time ago I had a conversation with some people I do life with. I expressed the opinion that is unreasonable to expect someone of my age not to have a skeleton or thirteen in her closet. Really. (If I stand on the tip of my toes and stretch out my hand as far as I possibly can without detaching my arm, I can brush the big 4 0 with the tip of my middle finger.) The nature of my particular pile of skeletons is not up for discussion. Suffice it sing ‘oh to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be.’ Because we’re human, we’re all going around collecting skeletons and shoving them into our closets. You, me, and yes, Mother Teresa. But that’s not where I was going with this. I was going to say that I wonder if there might be something else there, for V S Naipaul. I wonder if sometimes he looks at the V S Naipaul that is the figment of other peoples’ imagination and feels that deep, unparalleled loneliness of not being known. I’ve been down this road before, I know. I know. It is a subject that preoccupies me, the craving to be known, quirks and all, the desire to be known yet loved. I think most of us carry around some degree of fear that people only love us and accept us because they don’t know all of who we are and all that there is to be known about us. Doubtless some at the extreme end live with the dread, every waking hour and sometimes in their nightmares, that when their beloved discover some of what they are and all of what they’ve been, they’ll suffer rejection. And, if you ask me, the fear of rejection is no less painful than rejection itself. I think this is the fundamental reason why I am a Christian. I struggle with different aspects of my faith in countless ways all the time. Ironically perhaps, now more than ever. But one thing remains true: when this African woman stands alone before God, she knows herself to be utterly and completely known, and totally and unconditionally loved. It’s impossible to trump that. And, it’s impossible to walk away from that. Known, yet loved is the safest place I know. I’m incubated right now in a context where I’m rubbing shoulders with an acquaintance regularly, whereas previously, our contact and interaction had been very limited. That is to say, I’m interacting on a regular basis with someone who I previously only knew as a friend of a friend. Recently, she made a very flattering observation about me to our mutual friend. In the beginning, I was quite flattered. But soon, I started to do that thing that I do so well: fret. What she said wasn’t all of how I saw myself. I could see how she could come to that conclusion, because, certainly, I can be that way. But only half the time. Just as often, I’m almost the exact opposite. So off I went to navel-gaze before one of the beloved who serve me as a mirror. So and so said such and such, I said. Is this the way she saw me, I asked. She said yes. Really, I asked. And then I said, but you also know this other side of me, what about that? She said, yes, but you seem to have learned to go away and be the ‘other person’ in the private place, so more and more these days, the person people interact with is this (flattering) side of you. I said, ‘oh.’ I got it, I think, although it still niggles an itsy little bit. Because it made me wonder whether those with only this perspective of me really know me. (You can see once again that I can drive myself crazy, but better me than you, right?) For those of you who are working your active imaginations overtime, I don’t exactly have an illustrious past. But, like I said, I’m skipping along happily toward 40. I’ve lived. I've got baggage. There are things that I would do differently, given the chance to do them all over again. And who I am is as much about all the things I’ve gotten wrong, as about all the times I've gotten it right. So I can sort of, maybe, perhaps, understand V S Naipaul. And Mary J Blige. And... you get my drift.It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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7:15
From: My part of the world.......
Read This Entry & More At My part of the world.......
Now this here is sick! How in the hell do you have a child with your daughter?! What's even worse is that it's a consensual relationship! Whatever happened to writing down names like John Doe and telephone numbers like 234567890 on applications when you dont want people to know who you are? This idiot seems not to have gotten that memo. I guess the slow sperm won the race in his case. I just read the papers on-line and saw that chaos has restarted in Kibera slums and on the streets due to the wrangle over cabinet seats. It seems this power sharing agreement didn't even get to the sharing stage. I know I can't express it as well as Kenyans who are caught up in this ridiculous fight for power but I am sure people are sick and tired of this. Since I don't have a crystal ball all I can do is hope and pray for the best with all of you, shame elections just passed otherwise I would have encourage you to send them packing........ And in other wonderful news the dollar is fast becoming as strong as one ply tissue paper to a man with a running stomach Vietnam's central bank even had to order the country's commercial banks a week ago to resume buying dollars within the tight range of exchange rates set by the government. Many banks had started betting on dollar depreciation and refusing to accept large sums in dollars, to the point that multinational companies and exporters had trouble wiring money into the country to pay their employees' salaries. Yes, when you have to order people to take dollars things aren't looking too good. What amazes me is how long it took Americans to realise that something was wrong with their economy and leadership in general. I know there have been alot of bad decisions made over the years but the one that tops the list in general was going to Iraq. Well we do know that Haliburton and co are making a killing there so I don't think they'll be leaving anytime soon. so the U.S economy is going to be paying for that war for sometime to come. Since the little money I have is fast becoming useless, is there anyone in Europe who'll put me up so I can make some money to go back to Kenya? I cook, clean and I'm also drama free. I see girls are showing the boys how things are meant to be done. Anyway as you can tell from my links and post, wonderful amazing things are happening in this world that are leaving me so giddy with delight that I dont think I can add anything to this post. Have a the nicest day possible! Ps: Liverpool kicked Arsenal out of the Champion's League, something to smile about at least!
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6:28
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
And Why Kibaki Must Go NOW The question on the minds of worried Kenyans now is whether the violence that has broken out in the country is spreading or it is just pockets of resistance that will easily be contained? Reports reaching this blogger indicate that protests and skirmishes have so far been reported in Nairobi’s Kibera slums, Kipkelion (near Kericho) and in Kisumu. However all have been contained quickly and successful only that in Kibera the railway line that cuts through East And Central Africa’s largest slum was once again destroyed by rioting mobs. Still, at the time of writing this post, tensions remained high in most of Rift Valley.  Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki, blundering, lame duck "duly elected" president of Kenya still living in the 60s. Under him Kenya has limped from one crisis to another since 2003.
But the biggest surprise came out of the tough talking PNU and affiliate parties parliamentary group meeting yesterday. The MPs emerged from their meeting vowing to fully support the president even if the worst came to the worst and he dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections. Of course PNU were bluffing and the truth is that a fresh general election is the last thing President Kibaki wants. But Kenyans will also remember that not too long ago, the last thing President Kibaki wanted were the Anan-brokered peace talks. But they still happened did they not? And shortly after he had sent his ministers to say that those coming to broker peace were coming all that way for a cup of tea. My take is that I will be surprised if Kenyans do not go back to the polls within the next 12 months. But more on that later. Obviously the game being played by PNU is one of bravado because the call for fresh elections from ODM is hitting where it hurts most. The biggest problem president Kibaki would face (if he was even eligible to run again) would be from his own Kikuyu community. The truth is that these dear fellow Kenyans, our brothers and sisters have suffered greatly in IDP camps. But to add insult to injury politicians have taken to mentioning IDPs in recent times with only political mileage being the motive. There is nothing that can be more cruel and insensitive. Nobody has lifted a finger to help alleviate their pain and suffering. In fact the IDPs problem has exposed our political class for who they really are and most of that blame must lie squarely on the door step of one Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki. Indeed it should be very clear now that what is ailing Kenya most terribly now is a disease, nay a fatal disease called Mwai Kibaki. Any Kenyan who is honest with themselves irrespective of what tribe they come from will quickly admit that if Mwai Kibaki were to leave office today the country would quickly get out of every crisis facing her today. Let us completely forget our tribal affiliations for one minute and analyse the Kibaki presidency soberly and how the country has limped from one crisis to another... Read moreTerrible and very sad secret caused beautiful Kenyan woman to lose every man who ever loved herHow secure are your Safaricom/Celtel cell phone conversations?Kenyan charged with murder in the US: Kwani he didn't know what DNA evidence can do?
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3:03
From: Black Looks
Read This Entry & More At Black Looks
***Two new blogs from South Africa’s shackdweller movement. The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign is an umbrella body for 15 community organisations. The body was formed in 2000 with the aim of
of fighting evictions, water cut-offs and poor health services, obtaining free electricity, securing decent housing, and opposing police brutality.
***Shackdwellers: Housing Struggles Worldwide [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Quick Links", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/04/quick_links-9.html" });
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2:36
From: Farmgal
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Because I believe that the madness that is the grand coalition will never work. I believe we should go back to the polls. At the rate we’re sharing power, Kenyans might be asked to label their pots and pans ODM or PNU.
Both parties might demand representation in marriages, we might have to clearly label our [...]
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2:30
From: tHiNkEr'S rOoM
Read This Entry & More At tHiNkEr'S rOoM
The gaffes I make,
the faltered steps,
the misses.
The wounds I caused,
the gloom I wrought,
the misses.
The tears I brought,
the sadness on,
the misses.
Poor choices made,
bad paths taken,
the misses.
Missteps taken,
bridges broken,
the misses.
Now my ship has sailed,
and I remain
in pieces …
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© M :: tHiNkEr'S rOoM, 2008.
Comment On The Misses …
Category: Politics, Reflections.
   
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