Discuss here.
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22:46
Can the ECK be entrusted with future polls?
» Kenya Imagine With by-elections coming up in early June, controversy is brewing in Kenya over whether the Samuel Kivuitu led Electoral Commission of Kenya will be able to run the elections and furnish results acceptable to both sides. Especially important because parliament is split straight down the middle (evident at the Speaker's election), the by-elections are set for the 11th of June. In the contest, the representatives for Ainamoi and Embakasi constituencies will be chosen, to take on the roles of the late David Too and Mugabe Were. In Emuhaya constituency a replacement is sought for Kenneth Marende MP who was elected parliament's speaker while in Kilgoris and Wajir East, inconclusive contests at the General Election will finally be settled.
Discuss here. -
On Post-Election Rebellion, Economic Growth and National Sovereignty
» Kenya Imagine The other day, two colleagues on a listserv I subscribe to submitted posts that had troubling assumptions on growth and sovereignty in Kenya. One assumed that the 6 per cent economic growth achieved in the first Kibaki term had so significantly leveraged Kenya that it was making donors jittery - Kenya was no longer begging. She also made the assumption that, because Kenya was funding most of its budget from local sources at 93 per cent, the country had gained a new level of autonomy from its donors.
Read more from Godwin R. Murunga here.
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22:11 AfriGadget Innovator Series: Simon Mwacharo of Craftskills
» AfriGadget I recently had a chance to conduct an email interview with Simon Mwacharo, an entrepreneur based in Nairobi, Kenya who a great example of what George Ayitteh has so aptly described as “The Cheetah Generation”.
Simon owns and runs CraftSkills, a small business based in Nairobi, Kenya that focuses on designing and building self-sustaining renewable energy projects in places not accessible to the electric grid. Craftskills had to date undertaken challenging projects in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Cameroon and Rwanda among other places. Simon, whom AfriGadget first got to meet last summer at TED Global in Arusha, Tanzania, graciously agreed to conduct an email interview with AfriGadget.
AfriGadget: Could you tell us when and how Craft Skills got into the business of renewable energy in East Africa and the inspiration behind the organization?
Simon: CRAFTSKILLS was found in the year 2000 by myself. I was inspired by a challenge from my rural home where we have not had power for the last 40 plus years since [Kenya's] independence [in 1963]. I come from a hill side village in Sagalla, Taita Hills in Coast Province where we receive quite some strong wind from the Nyika Plateau. This wind passes through without being tapped and sometimes our roofs can not stand in its way.
I started talking to people about wind turbines and how I can get an affordable one which I can make and produce for other needy people. When darkness falls in these villages plus the fog it is virtually impossible to travel the terrain at night.
AfriGadget: Tell us a little about the people behind Craft Skills and the staff who work for the organization.
Simon: I started with two workers. I could not afford to hire trained people so I decided to train myself first then train my two boys. Then I got a friend who repairs radios and TVs in Kibera to help me design and put together a charge controller.
Now we have a team of 20 people and other partners out there in the field with their staff totaling 50. We have technicians, welders fitters, fiberglass experts and engineers and sales people.
AfriGadget: What is the typical profile of a Craft Skills project? Who is your typical client and how are the projects typically executed?
Simon: Most of our clients are not the owners of the projects we put up. They benefit from the battery charging services in the wind/solar sites we put up with our partners. The low income earners who cannot afford grid power or are in settlements where grid power is unavailable. We take both to do the sites ourselves involving the people on the ground as partners. Others are home owners who have invested a lot on building good homes in non grid areas – these put up turbines for their own use like lighting, and pumping water from wells and boreholes. The other segment is the business people I market areas where there is no grid who put up turbines to run charging centres and sell power to other shops or run their off-grid businesses like lodges and hotels, schools and other institutions.
AfriGadget: Can you share with our readers some of the challenges that Craft Skills faces in executing your projects?
Simon: We have faced cultural challenges where we cannot put a turbine on the most ideal site due to beliefs on such sites hence we have to educate the citizens to allow us to do so or redesign the project and relocate. Another is the financial capability of the citizens we find in these off grid areas.
[As a result of this] we have designed low power product (battery bundles and LED lights) to reach them so that they can be counted as beneficiaries of this new technology.
AfriGadget: Why renewable energy? What is the rationale behind Craft Skills’ exclusive focus on projects that produce energy from renewable sources.
Simon: We were looking for something which is affordable and sustainable and cuts across the economic sectors. Solar was proving to be more expensive, delicate, sophisticated and easily stolen when installed on ones home. We needed to sell people more power at a cheaper rate hence wind was the best candidate.
Wind is everywhere just like solar – one needs to get the right spot to put the turbine as high as they can. Its 24 hrs (Day and Night) and we found a cheap way we could make our turbines take advantage of low wind situations with the multi-pole generator, hollow blades for the propeller, with 90 per cent locally available materials making our technology the best application for this region.
AfriGadget: Which would you say has been the most satisfying/gratifying project that you have been involved with at Craft Skills? What was so special to you about this particular project?
Simon: The Chifiri water pan project to me is most gratifying. This settlement is all arid land pastoral community. The demand for water for drinking washing and watering the thousands of livestock is enormous.
Our turbine provided a cheaper solution for water and lighting the “manyattas” around the water pan. The contractor on the ground is excellent on his construction of the earth dams. His design impressed me that water was going to be available for over 6 months instead of the normal 4 months after the rainy seasons. He made sure the dams were well compacted and fenced to avoid animals hoofing inside the dam – increasing the rate of percolation and lose of water in the ground. Water is only available at the kiosks which are piped and placed near the settlements. The project provides water troughs for the animals to drink from and bathrooms for the people to clean themselves in. Within the fenced dam there is an armed home guard or caretaker manning the place with a security light up the tower hoisting the turbine.
Simon was also interviewed by Juliana Chebet aka AfroMusing, a Senior Editor at AfriGadget on CraftSkills. You can find the video at this link.
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20:31
Mungiki Going For Raila Head
» You Missed This Central Province leaders are cleverly scheming to use the Mungiki menace enable Raila make his own political noose. Unless the Prime Minister knows something that ordinary Kenyans are not privy too, Njenja Karume and co are cleverly hiding under Raila’s pragmatic and proactive suggestion to engage the Mungiki militia in dialogue to cleanse their bloodied trails.
PNU is rediscovering its DECEPTIVE traits by pretending to hail the gesture to talk to Mungiki knowing very well they are the PRINCIPAL financiers and beneficiaries of the murderous edifice. True to their characteristic these chaps are more than willing to export their local problems to the rest of Kenya when it suits them most. Their script is so predictable so much so that you need not think very hard to see them eventually turning around demonizing their subject of collective hate when crunch time beckons.
Mungiki has equally perfected DECEPTION and taken it to new level in pulling wool on our eyes when they shamelessly claim to have supported and voted for ODM. And the lies don’t stop there. Maina Njenja takes it a notch higher by rubbing it in that by extension Mungiki considers itself as part of the coalition government. So we must assume that those foul-mouthed gangs led by Ndura Waruinge in the streets of Nairobi in support of Kibaki during the post elections violence were aliens from Mars.
Clever political extermination
Politics of DECEPTION as personified by Kibaki has been exposed for what it is and only his cronies continue flying the kite. Reminds you of the script to make Kenyans believe the mirage of 6% that never was or singing themselves hoarse being proud Kenyans. Raila must be very careful in his attempts to cultivate a national and reconciliatory personality given the people he is dealing with. Raila is one person the Kikuyu political elite will not forgive in a hurry and any they will manipulate any opportunity to EXTERMINATE HIM POLITICALLY.
Raila must be EXTREMELY CAREFUL in dealing with Mungiki. This is one multi-headed hydra which will promptly mutate to consume him. Mungiki's oath lies elsewhere and their objective of TRIBAL SUPREMACY and PURITY have no place for other Kenyans outside Central province and Kikuyu Diaspora. It defeats the tenets of basic political logic why Raila would want to prove to be a hero while REAL Mungiki principals and beneficiaries Uhuru and Kibaki are selfishly guarding their counsel.
Raila and ODM by extension stand to lose badly. At best many ODM supporters will be left confused at the thought of embracing this Kenyan mafia. ODM stands the risk of losing the heart and minds of civilized Kenyans who will readily distance themselves from anybody or organization seen to be pandering to BEASTS who specialize in skinning heads of toddlers in the 21st Century.
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18:25
No Visible Movement
» Black Looks In Prison The Whole Of My Life is a documentary covering the arrest, trial, imprisonment and fight for a retrial for Mumia Abu Jamal. Mumia’s is presently undergoing a complex appeal process which focuses on three major trial violations - the racism of the judge who was heard by the stenographer at [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "No Visible Movement", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/04/no_visible_movement.html" });
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15:12
Clay Shirky at Web 2.0: Gin and Cognitive Surplus
» White African This was my favorite talk at the Web 2.0 Expo - probably one of my favorite talks period. I promptly went out and bought Clay’s new book, Here Comes Everybody, and am working through that right now. It’s good.
The big question he answers is, “Where do people find the time?”
Enjoy the 15 minute video:
Read the transcript here.
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Moody Awori Snubs Kalonzo Committee
» You Missed This Samuel Kivuitu continues to provoke Kenyans says ECK is ready to run byelections
Former Vice President Moody Awori knows a lot about the prisons department, after all it was his pet project during his tenure as the second highest authority in the land.
In declining his appointment today by new VP Kalonzo Musyoka to chair a committee to look into the Prisons crisis, the former VP made it very clear that there was no need for such a committee. He pointed out that a detailed strategic report was already available that addressed virtually all the grievances of the prison wardens and all that is required urgently is implementation.
This is the second person in as many days to decline to take their seats in Kalonzo Musyoka's committee. Just yesterday former Prisons boss Abraham Kamakil also politely refused to take up his appointment to the Kalonzo probe team.
It is amazing how a presidential candidate of the recently concluded general election who had promised the people change and new leadership is falling back on old and tired ways of dealing with problems which will surely not work this time. (See my raw notes this week to discover some shocking facts from Kalonzo Musyoka's past and present).
The whole strategy behind these committees and commissions of enquiries has been to reward a politician's croonies with plum jobs at the expense of the tax payer. So despite the fact that Moody Awori produced a strategic plan, it seems that Kalonzo's committee will repeat the task and his predecessor too, while no action at all is taken.
However if this is what Kalonzo has in mind, he had better think again, because the wardens are serious and their plight needs to be addressed and addressed immediately, forming committees to tell the minister the obvious is just a waste of public funds.
As this blogger has said here before, this is clearly a problem that the VP is not capable of handling and this is becoming clearer by the day. The sad thing now is that the country may end up being thrown into yet another serious crisis by the time Kalonzo's blundering hand is through with this.
Angry husband allows wife to keep boyfriend
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12:04
Guest Post: Acolyte from My Part of the World
» The Displaced African Enclosure: [download]
Introduction
1)The West Has Many Distractions: Focus on That Which Is Important Not That Which Is Urgent
2) Acolyte’s fascinating post on the Dutch missionaries (It’s a three parter and it’s amazing)
The Post Begins Like This……..
Mwangi got in touch with me and asked me to do a guest post. It’s been a minute and a half since I’ve done one, so I dusted off my blogging skills and asked him what he wanted me to blog about and here it is…………
If you could offer anyone migrating over to the West one piece of advice that would make their experience worthwhile what would it be?Well my answer would be,
“Ask yourself 3 very important questions; Why are you here? What do you want here? How do you intend to get it?”
Why are you here?
Getting to the First World country of choice isn’t an end in itself but a means to an end (Quick note from Mwangi: Hallelujah!Spot on!).
You don’t land at Gatwick, La Guardia, Schipol or Darwin International Airport and find 70 virgins and paradise waiting for you. Au contraire all you have done is gotten past the qualification laps and now the marathon awaits you!
So once again, ask yourself why you are where you are. If all you can say is that you are getting away from the conditions at home be it unemployment, poverty etc then it’s about time you went back to the drawing board and started thinking.
What do you want from your experience abroad?
I’m sure we all remember the old saying, to fail to plan is to plan to fail.
I have met Kenyans who have been out here for over 10 years and we are on the same level. I do know that bad luck happens but if you look at some people it’s obvious that they became complacent with their jobs that could pay the rent and their bills.
Once you fall into that complacence out here you simply become a cog in the machine: just moving but not going anywhere.
If you don’t know what you want you simply aren’t going to look for it. “Life out here isn’t a bed of roses,”, I agree so you have to be aggressive and look out for opportunities no matter what jaded people out here may tell you.
How do you intend to get what brought you out here?
You want the American dream?
That’s great but contrary to public opinion, money isn’t picked on the ground out here. Jobs are hard to come by for Americans let alone foreigners.
Or maybe you came out here to get your degree.
If your fees aren’t being paid; how will you afford school?
Many countries let students work for limited hours per month. Many Kenyans have found out the hard way that these jobs don’t pay enough for fees and upkeep and so hard choices have been made. It took me 3 years to get out here but in taking my time to plan, I got my Master’s degree funded and a cozy monthly allowance that helped me complete my degree in less than 2 years. Had I come out here earlier, rest assured I would still be plugging away.
More on a Personal Note
Yes I’ve gone waaaaaaaay past one piece of advice but since it’s free I might as well share. I also think that you need to have a very strong resolve if you are to make it abroad.
Society out here tends to be very individualistic and not communal like Africa; so your problems are your own; no-one else’s. Even if you have Kenyan friends out here, life gets very lonely because everyone has jobs.In fact some people have more than one so you may not see them for most of the week. Add to the fact that you don’t just drop into someone’s place to say hello unlike back home.
Last but Not Least
The most important thing you can have when you get out here is focus. There are one million and one distractions and obstacles out here.
That is why many people who get here never even get in school when they are dazzled by the things out here. That’s why you need focus and if possible get a good support group of friends who you can rely on and trust.
Anyway, I’m not trying to put anyone off but telling it like it is. With hard work and resolve, there are many opportunities available out here for those who want them. So if you are coming out here, I wish you all the best in your adventure!
Acolyte,
From My part of the world
If this post got your thinking, make sure you keep receiving regular thought-provoking posts through either email or RSS.
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11:00
Sleeping giants may never wake (or reform)
» bankelele Sleeping giants may never wake (or reform)
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9:31
Mobile TV Is Here
» KA-INVESTOR Safaricom has partner with DSTV to provide Mobile TV to their subscribers. Mobile TV is a technology that allows people to view regular live television content on their mobile phones or other mobile devices that they get through traditional cable or pay TV subscriptions at home.
Research indicate that mobile phones will remain the central multi-purpose device for the foreseeable future, outnumbering any other mobile devices like digital media players and pocket PCs. 84% of mobile phone users in countries where Mobile TV has been launched are interested in using Mobile TV Service provided it is commonly available and affordable. Close to 60% of these will prefer watching the same content that they get on TV at home. News, sports, music videos and Game shows are the four dominant types of content that the surveyed users will prefer watching on mobile TV.
Personally I would go for it, if the subscription costs are affordable. The possibilities are tremendous. Getting up-to-date news on the go, watching a live soccer matches when you are in the rural or even following your favorite series anywhere you are. It’s just amazing,
I bet the service will be quite popular. The big question however is the pricing, which in turns depends on how much it will cost the mobile services provider. Safaricom plans to price it at Ksh.1,000 as from 1st July, but it will be free before June 30. This will be a boon for high end mobile handsets as most of the users will upgrade their handsets specifically to get mobile TV on their handsets.
The recommended phone type by Safaricom cost at least Ksh.25,000 per set. The success however, will be dependent on content offered and price charged for the service
Would you go for mobile TV if the prices are kept in the range of Ksh.1,000 per month?
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Kivuitu’s ECK All Set to Conduct By-Elections
» You Missed This The ECK has finally announced that by-elections will be conducted in five constituencies and 55 wards civic wards on June 11th 2008. The constituencies are: Ainamoi, Emuhaya, Embakasi, Wajir East and Kilgoris.
No, no, you’re not imagining things. Oh yes, the one and only Samuel Kivuitu, Kihara Muttu, Muturi Kigano and the rest of the crowd, are all set to supervise elections in June, just six months after bungling the general elections!
With the country deeply divided, upwards of 1500 Kenyans dead; more than half a million others living as refugees in their own country and the constitution having had to be amended so as to accommodate a power sharing deal, one would imagine that the individuals responsible for this unfortunate turn of events would be sitting at a remand jail awaiting to be taken to court to face criminal negligence charges. And how WRONG one would be.
Sure, there are some positive things that have arisen out of Kivuitu’s massive cock-up, but the negative aspects far outweigh them. The 2007 election failure impacted on many lives, affected businesses, disrupted education and agriculture plus much more, not just in Kenya, but throughout the Eastern African region. Yet, the clumsy and inept ECK commissioners who are 100% responsible for this tragedy still sit pretty in their red carpet aircon offices enjoying hefty emoluments on tax payer account. All this while thousands of Kenyans mourn their dead relatives and many others sleep in rain soaked tents. What an insult!
Out of step with the real world
Admittedly, there is urgent need for constituencies without MPs to get representation in parliament. But should current ECK commissioners, now hiding behind constitutional security of tenure, be allowed to oversee by-elections, let alone hold public offices? Personally, recalling events at KICC in December 2007 and Kivuitu’s arrogant attitude ever since, I wouldn’t trust any of those ECK commissioners to serve as members of a village borehole committee.
Flashback: Towards the doomsday
It would seem that Kivuitu’s fate and that of his fellow commissioners lie in the hands of Mwai Kibaki as president. The ECK is governed by Chapter 41 of the Constitution of Kenya which inter-alia says: “....... 5) A member of the Commission may be removed from office only for inability to exercise the functions of his office (whether arising from infirmity of body or mind or from any other cause) or for misbehavior, and shall not be so removed except in accordance with this section.
(6) A member of the Commission shall be removed from office by the President if the question of his removal from office has been referred to a tribunal appointed under subsection (7) and the tribunal has recommended to the President that he ought to be removed from office for inability as aforesaid or for misbehavior.
(7) If the President considers that the question of removing a member of the Commission under this section ought to be investigated, then—
(a) the President shall appoint a tribunal, which shall consist of a chairman and four other members selected by the President........” The big question is whether the president will listen to the voices of reason and appoint the tribunal. Highly unlikely!
The Independent Review Commission headed by Justice Johann Kriegler set up to investigate general elections fiasco will hold countrywide meetings to gather evidence and has given interest groups up to 16th May to submit their written memoranda.
The influential Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Chairman, Mr Maina Kiai, has called for the Kenya Government to seek assistance from the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division (UNEAD) to oversee the by-elections. Maina reckons that the fact that there is an official inquiry into the conduct of the ECK is enough reason to ask for international assistance. He adds that the ECK lost credibility and integrity to conduct other elections after they messed up last year's polls.
On their part, the Secretary General of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya Sheikh Mohammed Dor has said that the Government ought to abolish the ECK and create a new representative commission so as to ensure free and fair elections.
Safina Party Leader and former Kikuyu MP Mr Paul Muite has also called for the reconstitution of the ECK before the June by-elections. Muite said it would be unacceptable for the ECK as currently constituted to run the repeat polls. "A majority of the commissioners are partisan, having being handpicked by one side of the political divide. Elections are like justice - they must not only be free and fair, but they must also be perceived to have been free and fair," said Muite. Instead, he urged for "an urgent constitutional amendment" to be fast-tracked in Parliament to put in place a professional ECK to conduct all future elections. Muite is foreseeing violent protests ahead citing Embakasi constituency which has the potential to easily become a flashpoint constituency to trigger off fresh violence if the outcome of the repeat polls was disputed.
It might be recalled that the European Union (EU), the Commonwealth and the African Union election observers all condemned the ECK saying that it failed to meet "international standards of transparency in key areas of its mandate".
All the international observer reports recommended that ECK be completely overhauled to build confidence in its independence and professionalism and also to ensure that it is credible, transparent and impartial.
I can only see more trouble for this country if the ECK, as currently constituted, goes ahead to oversee the by-elections in June.
Mombasa businessman faces the wrath of a stripper
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3:47
Investors Cheated into buying Kenya's Safaricom shares in IPO
» The Benin Epilogue Part I: Africa-Ready for Business 
It is emerging that many local and international investors were cheated into buying shares in the recently concluded East Africa's largest ever Initial Public offering (Safaricom IPO). The company recently issued a revised Safaricom prospectus raising eyebrows as it borders on reneging on a sworn affidavit that's binding. Read More CLICK HERE
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3:26
Disinvestment in Kenya
» Rants, Raves & Reviews After the greedy, selfish & irresponsible actions by the politicians - PNU, ODM , ODM-K, NARC, etc - Kenyans are agitating for 'more'. The problem is that ALL the 'agitators' are government employees. So not only do we have the BLOATED cabinet, we have to pay more to civil servants.
So who suffers? The private sector who face tough trading conditions, poor infrastructure, insecurity & now have to contend with higher taxes. Nobody is paying attention to the vital industrial & agriculture sector on whom we rely on for real wealth creation.
Why are we surpirsed when many manufacturers relocate their factories to other countries, farmer abandon their crops, businesses default on loans and horticulture exporters move to Ethiopia?
Nurses give ultimatum to government
Teachers want higher salaries
Increased violent crime affecting businesspeople in Nairobi
Prison wardens strike for higher salaries and better conditions
Even the prisoners are on strike for higher pay!
Mungiki threat is killing the rural economy
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