Nairobi's inefficient City Council which has huge problems with a bloated workforce, corruption, poor enforcement of important by-laws, poor/outdated sewage system and poor maintenance of the road network.
Oh, but dare you prune the flowers in YOUR garden... the City Council will be on your neck... or is the joke on us since it opens more avenues for corruption!
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22:59 Start-Up Junkies
» Kenyanentrepreneur.com I stumbled upon this documentary about a bunch of serial entrepreneurs who are trying to start an on-line postal service system. It’s an 8-part series and it’s quite interesting to watch if you are interested in entrepreneurship or business. I’ve posted the first episode here, but you can watch all episodes by clicking on this [...]
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22:30
imagine diaries| Mon July 21st, 2008
» Kenya Imagine Hope you'all had a fun weekend! Here is some interesting blog posts to make for an interesting Monday :) To read all of them, click here. Sign up if you want to see your blog here.
For summaries and direct links to each post, read below:- Amina on Why does Obama hate my family? She reacts to a commentary by Ken Gray who criticizes Obama for making sweeping negative statements about black men in America.
- In my own eyes-- Msazi describes a peaceful evening with her brother and her partner.
- Enigmaress blogs on life: If , You have to hope, even hope is a lie, A new earth: awakening to your life's purpose, don't ask life, "why me?" instead say, "try me ," and if it bleeds, it leads.
- Johari on random idle chatter blogs about a music video she shares while chatting with a friend online.
- Amina in her post: on hair extensions and why you should reconsider that weave discovers that human hair extensions are not exactly the best thing for one to put on one's head.
- George Nyongesa from Bunge la Wananchi shares his experience (with images) with the Kenya Police at the Jevanjee Gardens: Police Terror on Bunge La Wananchi.
- Ritch wonders whether the recent Kenyan high school fires are accidents, or arson.
- George Nyongesa draws a parallel between high food prices and corruption in Kenya.
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17:33
School Unrest Mirrors Our Violent Society
» You Missed This They say the best form of flattery is imitation. The violence presently rocking our schools can as well be mimicking our violent society. But in the face of PREDICTABLE secondary school unrest towards the end of second term our leaders borrow from the tired book of commission and task forces. Granted, the cause of student riots and arson in schools is a multifaceted phenomenon which is almost singularly oiled by corruption in its varied forms.
Second term of the school’s academic year is defined by mock exams that only succeed in straining students. These exams that are meant to provide a preface kind of feeling of the real exam later in the year are a complete paradox. While the syllabus is designed to be completed in four years, the mock exams in effect encourage rush teaching with a premium on quantity of material covered rather than quality. Add this to the preoccupation of KCSE ranking of schools and you get the best recipe for tension that only need a spark which is often readily available thanks to drugs and alcohol.
Our parents have reduced their responsibilities to biological, period. Abdicating parenting responsibilities marks the genesis and root cause of this teenage unrest. While boarding schools may be considered a colonial relic that has outlived its usefulness, disbanding them may be a quick fix that will only leave the problem to spread its destructive tentacles. The need for CHANGE in Kenya has never been more urgent especially in our education system. Teachers are overwhelmed by the twin roles of parenting gangs of energetic and often rebellious youths and imparting cognitive skills.
Lost generation
Corruption has its rightful place in the whole mess. Political influence and under hand promotions has bequeathed incompetent head teachers responsibilities they have no idea of handling. Well-performing secondary schools are cash cows for such principals whose resulting disproportional wealth leaves the other teachers demoralized when they see somebody unfairly reaping from their efforts. Corruption too also ensures steady supply of illicit drugs within schools. The untouchable drug barons hold Kenya at ransom while destroying her youth.
The present riots may be a reflection of a society steadily hurtling towards failure. Our leaders are not doing the unrest any good by falling to the old gimmick of task forces who will shamelessly end up duplicating reports from their predecessors. Lack of leadership in all shapes and spheres is our bane. When confronted with a crisis we resort to making impressions of motion with no singular actual movement. Our version of success is so warped in our HELL-FOR-LEATHER mentality so much so that scoundrels readily pass for role models for our kids. We are a country is dire traits and in critical need of RENEWAL.
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15:41
Set a thief to catch a thief...
» Rants, Raves & Reviews Yep, the whole gang behind the scandals during kibz' 2002-2007 run are all out i.e. the charges have been dropped against them...
Whereas Raila is asking John Githongo to return and even promised to find a place for him in the government... the folks associated with anglo-fleecing are all back...
mwiraria and the rest have gone scot-free. Anglo-what?
kamani & co - the Kenya Police (hardly a bastion of cleanliness) dropped their demand for the arrest of the kamanis. aNGLO-WHAT?
pattni & somaia are out an back in business thanks to deals with KACC. saitoti was 'released' as well... and got a job back as a minister!
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15:31
Why has no one arrested Ntimama yet?
» Kenyan Pundit The incriminating clip can be watched here. Where is Alfred-full-page-color-press-ad-against-war-criminals Mutua? Not to mention politicians from both sides? This is the kind of loose talk that will get the country into trouble a few months from now. Don’t the police have nothing better to do rather than arrest and [...]
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School Fires: Arson or Accident?
» You Missed This 
What is happening in Kenyan secondary schools? Can someone please stand out of the whole damn mess and speak out.
Of late there have been incidents of fires breaking out (!) in our schools leaving tidy messes in their wake. Just last week a fire broke out at Nanyuki Boys’ and destroyed property worth a tidy sum. And two days ago, another fire “attacked” another high school (Upper Hill High School), destroyed property and left at least one student dead.
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Also published today by Chris: Why did Safaricom sack so many senior managers?
Kalenjin secrets: Deadly Nandi versus Arap Moi
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This recent spate of “mysterious fires” reminds me of two separate “school fires” that led to the loss of so much property and nipped many lives in the bud.
I am talking about the Kyanguli and Bombolulu fires. Remember them?
On 26th March, 2001 at least 59 male students died at Kyanguli Secondary School (in Machakos) when a fire swept through the dormitory they were in. Arson was raised as a possible cause of the fire.
Three years before the Kyanguli fire, in 1998, at least 25 female students died in Bombolulu, near Mombasa, when their dormitory caught fire while they were locked inside. A commission of inquiry was set up to investigate the Bombolulu fire and its only findings were that the fire was caused by an electric fault. Nothing concrete.
These are just some of the most horrendous fire tragedies that have ever hit our schools. But it seems school heads (and the Ministry of Education) will take a very long time to learn that a stitch in time saves nine.
Most of these schools do not have warning systems that would help to deal with fires before the worst comes to the worst. Neither do they have fire fighting equipment (nor the expertise among the students on how to handle “fire” situations).
Most of the Boarding secondary schools have sub-standard dormitory dynamics. I mean: i)the wiring system is ovyo kabisa; ii) the dorms ‘carry’ so many students than they ought to; ii) they have very small windows (and fewer too); iv) some students bring incendiary materials into the dormitories but the schools have not put in place the necessary mechanisms of making sure students don’t get their hands on such material.
But, know what, some other schools take the issue of “fire” very seriously. They have in place mechanisms of preventing incidences of fire from ever occurring. They are also very particular about the psychological health of their students. You rarely hear of riots or fires in these schools and institutions.
Seriously, this situation has to be taken care of before history repeats itself and we are left lamenting and pointing fingers (in the wrong direction!). I would hate to hear “The cause of the fire has still not been established” while at the same time counting bodies and calculating the losses incurred after a conflagration. -
Deadly Nandi and Daniel Arap Moi
» You Missed This 
One reader asked a very interesting question yesterday in the comments area.Why is it that a people like the Kalenjin with such a rich history of resistance were so quiet during the Kenyatta years as the first president of Kenya embarked on a massive program to settle many Kikuyu’s (whose land in central province was taken from them by the ruling elite then)? Indeed it is this Kenyatta policy that has caused the current crisis in the Rift Valley that is still a huge threat to national security.
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Also published today: Why did Safaricom sack so many senior managers?
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What happened was that Jomo Kenyatta used the then Minister of Home affairs and later his vice president, Daniel arap Moi to settle the large number of Kikuyu farmers in the Rift Valley. The settlement was encouraged by many other Kikuyu families who had already been farming the Rift Valley for a long time by the time Kenya obtained her independence.
Since the assassination of the Nandi Orkoiyot Koitalel arap Samoei who had united the community and won so many stunning military victories against the colonials, the Kalenjin community as a whole has always been looking for a leader to unite them and lead them to properity and success in a changed world. From the early 50s that leader was Daniel arap Moi. Moi criss-crossed the vast Rift Valley cheating his tribesmates that allowing the Kikuyu into their land would bring progress and open the floodgates for them to get direct access to the national cake. Indeed towards the end of the Moi years, some Kalenjin tribes, especially the Nandi were bitterly opposed to Moi and in the run up to the 1997 presidential elections; there was a time that it looked like the Nandi were not going to vote Moi. This is what allowed inroads into the Rift Valley by Mwai Kibaki’s political party then, DP (Democratic Party of Kenya).
But Moi used his vast historical knowledge of the Nandi to outsmart Kibaki and his DP and still get the Nandi vote despite the fact that the community was not happy with him and his many empty promises that dated back to the 1950s. Moi’s campaigners on the ground simply asked the Nandi to choose between allowing another Kikuyu government like Kenyatta’s to return or voting him back in for his last term. That was a no-brainer for the Nandi and Moi got his much-needed votes.
At this juncture it is appropriate for us to observe a fascinating fact. The British were completely unable to defeat the Nandi under their great Orkoiyot Koitalel arap Samoei even after they sent a man with a reputation for ingenious military tactics called Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen. So the British who have gained a reputation for fair play and always doing things “above board” were forced to use the kind of dirty tactics that would usually “shock them.” You see they were getting desperate and deeply embarrassed that a small group pf savages would put up resistance against them for 11 years at great cost to life and property. They had just had enough.
Now Meinertzhagen noticed that the brain behind his every move being outsmarted was Koitalel arap Samoei. So one day in late 1905 the good colonel invited Koitalel and his close advisors to a peace meeting to discuss and finalize lasting peace. It was during that meeting that Meinertzhagen himself killed Koitalel with a rifle at close range. Judging from the size of the hole in Koitalel’s skull (still preserved and now with a Japanese collector) a powerful rifle (and not a revolver) was used and Meinertzhagen stood on his left side. It was clear that the Brits were not taking any chances and wanted to make sure that this man who had cost them so much died. Military courts of enquiry were held by the British government to examine the actions of Meinertzhagen after numerous complaints were made. But clearly they were just for show because Meinertzhagen rather than being charged was in the end acquitted and quietly transferred elsewhere. He went on to become chief intelligence officer of the British army during the Second World War and left the military a highly decorated hero. Koitalel and 23 other Nandis fell and only one Nandi survivor escaped the ill-fated meeting to tell the world the truth about what really happened on that fateful 1905 day.
Meinertzhagen had laid down his plans well and after the murder of the Orkoiyot, two armored trains and the largest expedition yet was sent to deal with the Nandi once and for all. The expedition consisted of 1,500 Indian, Swahili and Somali soldiers, 1,300 auxilrries, 900 armed porters, 10 mchine guns and the two armored train wagons. Still the brave Nandis held out for 2 long months with great casualties. It was clear that things were not the same without their brilliant military strategist and leader. Finally in December 1905 Nandi elders approached the British and requested a peace deal, which was quickly finalized and the Nandi were at long last subdued just as the prophecy of the man they had stoned to death had said.
I finish this weekend's special series with a simple question; Had the NSIS and the president been aware of all this, would they still have gone ahead and played the games they played last December?
P.S.: What is in this week’s raw notes (aiii, wacha tu)!! In fact I cannot dare mention it in this public forum. That’s how HOT it is. No kidding!! However you can get a FREE sneak preview of this red hot saga from my weekly Kumekucha Confidential. Email Me right away for it. It’s FREE kabisa.
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Safaricom Fires Over 15 Senior Managers
» You Missed This It is interesting that even as many Kenyans cry out for change and criticize our politicians for conflict of interest in serving the public, younger Kenyans are doing exactly what our political dinosaurs are doing out there in the private sector.Now leading mobile phone operator, Safaricom is known for having very strict company policies and employees are made aware that breaking some of the critical ones will lead to summary dismissal, no warnings. Still this did not hinder some managers from recently getting involved in very questionable dealings and using their positions in the company for personal profit. More so during the company’s recent IPO.
Insiders have informed this writer that some managers were found with double digit millions in their accounts shortly before the close of the IPO. Further investigations linked the huge sums of money to the purchase of extra shares in partnership with Safaricom dealers and other individuals which was clearly the kind of conflict of interest situation the company is against but sadly the kind of thing many Kenyans would see no wrong in doing (kwani amekula mbuzi ya nani?).
It is instructive that at the beginning of the IPO, Safaricom had told employees that they were free to purchase as many shares as they wished, but this rule was later hurriedly changed. The new rule stated that employees could only purchase shares worth a maximum of their annual gross salaries. Obviously what still happened is what the company feared and was trying to avoid. That is a situation where senior employees would gang up with dealers and other people who regularly deal with the company to apply for more shares than they would otherwise have gotten.
To make matters worse, many of them had been rubbing their hands in glee waiting for the shares to rapidly climb in value and give them quick overnight profits. As predicted in this blog in my numerous warnings to the public not to purchase the shares for various reasons, prices have been on a consistent downward spiral since they first traded on the Nairobi bourse (read an expert analysis of future projections concerning Safaricom shares.) So the poor Kenyans who were overtaken by greed, not only failed to make a killing but are now jobless in a market where finding a job is no easy task.
Other managers who were fired were found to have links with some of the company’s suppliers with a few even being shareholders. Yet another clear conflict of interest situation. But in the minds of many Kenyans this is seeing and grabbing an entrepreneurial opportunity.
According to my information the company plans to fire more managers as soon as the evidence against them is verified in the coming weeks.
P.S.: What is in this week’s raw notes (aiii, wacha tu)!! In fact I cannot dare mention it in this public forum. That’s how HOT it is. No kidding!! However you can get a FREE sneak preview of this red hot saga from my weekly Kumekucha Confidential. Email Me right away for it. It’s FREE kabisa.
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