One may be forgiven for imagining that Kibaki’s administration is jinxed to serial economic frauds. In the last three months, fraudulent deals hitherto cemented before last year’s elections are continuously being exposed. From the bar-talk-never-sold-actually-sold-above-board Grand Regency to the stinking Rift Valley Railways. The RVR is promising to be GRANDER than Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing before it. Leaves you wondering whether any asset sitting on asset Kenya will be left standing by 2012.
With enterprising Libyans shamelessly reading riot act at DULY ELECTED in his own backyard, we may as well consider ourselves collective squatters in our own country. The breakneck speed at which everything Kenyan is being nationalized (nay auctioned) smells everything except honest privatization. The players are so smart in taking advantage of the imperial presidency and state law offices such that no legal lose end is left. Any administration in the future trying to recover or retrace any of these mega scams will be permanently entangled in legal webs with all manner of serial constitutional references.
The rate at which fraud is popping at every crevice in Kibaki’s administration is proof enough of how elaborate the scheme to auction Kenya has been. But trust fraud and deception to hit back in vengeance as evident in the turmoil in Safaricom shares. While pedestrian economists gloated about their acumen to make a killing during the IPO, they will remain blind to the dead end of the path they chose. But again those asking pesky question in a room full of the smell of money have been derided as the epitome of lazy bones. Let industrious Kenyans reap the maggots hatching from the eggs they zealously bought and protected.
Wages of economic sin
So how many fires can a regime start and fan in a single term of office? It appears while Moi was ruining Kenya, the present vultures were salivating, scheming and bidding their time. It took Moi more than two decades to bring us to our knees. Contrast that with the monstrous looting in less than six years and you get DECEPTIVE INDUSTRY redefined. The Grand Coalition must be the Achilles heels to the smooth looting highway that has seen elite looters cruising at formula one speed in the last five years.
The present power elite have economics as their stock in trade and Kenya as the collateral. But despite this mad rush to primitive wealth accumulation at the expense of the rest of Kenyans, the evil schemes will come back to haunt their perpetrators. They may rape Kenya to her bare bones but the sins will definitely catch up with them in the long run. They will be made to pay for the numerous crimes they committed as collateral in pursuit of economic might. This may take time in years but as sure as the sun rises in the east these scoundrels will pay big time in the fullness of time.
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18:02 How Did I Get the Opening Music for the Displaced African Podcast and 3 Questions from Nakeel
» The Displaced African Benin Mwangi from the Cheetah Index asked:
I had a technical question for you. I am going to be doing a podcast next week and wanted to ask you if you know of any simple ways to create a jingle…Otherwise, I hope all is well. Keep up the good work!
My Answer:
Hey Benin. I will walk you through how I got the sound clips for the opening section of the Displaced African podcast and give you some additional ideas about where and how to get theme music for your upcoming podcast
1) I got the opening sound clip from a website known as Sound Rangers: You go there, choose a track, pay $20 and you own the copyright to that track forever. I then downloaded the free open sources sound editing software Audacity and combined the two to create the opening and closing section of every podcast.
Any other questions. Do not hesitate to ask.
Nakeel whose from the blog Nakeel asks:
1. Does Mwangi like Children or do children like Mwangi?
2. Whats the best thing that you have ever done in your life.
3. Given an opportunity to share a meal in your house with five guests who will they be?My Answers:
1) Children are kinda like their adult counterparts, there are some who absolutely love me and some who find me as likeable as salt in cordial/juice (which btw, not good). So it really does depend on the child.
2) Hmmm, since I am writing on this blog, I can easily make the case that this is the best thing I have ever done for so many reasons:
a) First time I have committed myself to doing something day after day after day for so long.
b) I have built up a name and brand for myself at a very young age.
c) I have committed to something in spite of the taunting and discouragement.
d) I’ve met some cool cats, have been and will continue to be on the radio.
e) I have learnt a lot of things in a lot of areas including how to start a business in Melbourne Australia, how to start an online business, how immigrants think, positive projects like Ushahidi, met Kirk Nugent and Derrick Ashong.
Just for the Sake of Contrast
On the other side of the moral spectrum, the best thing I did was the first time I took a trip to Sydney. I was broke, had no plans but I got my cousin and his girlfriend in a car and we drove to Sydney where we spent the weekend partying. I loved it because it was a truly, spontaneous, uninhibited decision and the fact that I was in “the flow” and spontaneous the whole trip.
The first time I ever got on stage and acted.
There’s a few of them………
3) The reason I have chosen these folk is not only because of my love for them, but also because of how difficult it would be for me to actually meet with them.
Anthony Robbins: This guy is a true Renaissance man. His level of understanding of how to work within and manipulate the human psychology and achieve peak state on a continuous basis among many many many other things……YES, please, I want to learn that. He is also the best speaker I have ever seen with my own 2 eyes - he not only held my attention but had me for 8 hours a day for 2 days straight……I love his speaking ability.
ii) Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson: This guy is the best performer I have ever seen perform in front of a crowd. I have never seen anyone who has such command and control of an audience. I would love to know how he does that and copy that. Don’t believe me, tell me you have ever seen better crowd control than this
Also in that list, I would love to meet Erwin Mcmanus and Barrack Obama for their speaking ability.
iii) Whoever controls the world economy: There is probably someone or some organization somewhere in the States that pretty much “holds everything together” and is in control of the world economy, I would love to meet the head of it. If its a loose knit group of organizations that work together to hold the American Century together, I would love to meet the heads of this company. I want to move in this world with full understanding of how it runs.
iv) Jay Abraham: I want to become a marketing consultant like he does. His ability to see “money connections” where other people don’t is just simply amazing. Again, I would love to pick his brain and do what he does.
v) Jesus Christ and the Guy In charge of putting together the Bible: I know for sure we are not being told the entire truth about the man called Jesus from Nazareth. I would love to know what the reality was and what realities were shall we say…..”not included” in the official text.
v) JabbaWockeez: I am a mediocre-at-best dancer, I want to learn to move like these guys move.
vi) Malcolm X: I love and respect this man so much.
Other people I would love to meet: Timothy Ferriss, Yaro Starak, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Botswana.
Update on 13th August 2008: After watching a few videos of his interviews on Youtube, I MUST add to the list: Will Smith
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15:07
Furahiday roundup
» Kikuyumoja's realm 1. Apple fun: “I Am Rich was a $999.99 app that did nothing“. Muahahahaha…..
Dear Apple disciple, please explain this to me:
You want Apple to CONTROL the market for you?
Besides, for that special *one-click shopping pleasure* there’s also CNR. Click, pay, install. I know you’ll like that.
2. Nerdpol
I LOVE THIS!
It’s a cartoon from a popular German site called nichtlustig.de. Found this in their newsletter this morning. It says: “Guys, we have a visitor. This is my cousin Hubert. He’s from (the) NERDPOL” (Nordpol = North Pole).
3. There’s no 3rd.
Sure, I could link to this funny video (with regard to a choleric Michael Arrington :-), but then….funstuff on the inet is just so….2005.
Have a relaxed weekend, will ya?
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12:04
An AfriGadget Slideshow and Interview
» AfriGadget A couple weeks ago, on a trip to Cambridge (US), Clark Boyd of The World sat down with me to do a quick interview and to grab some pictures from my most recent trip to Kenya for a slideshow. Here are the results (you can definitely tell a pro is behind this production):
[Direct slideshow link - higher quality]
Courtesy of Clark Boyd, Technology Correspondent for The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. For Clark’s weekly technology podcast, visit www.theworld.org/technology.
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11:26
The Nairobi Bomb Blast Ten Years On: A Subtle Lesson
» You Missed This Yesterday Kenyans and Tanzanians marked ten years to the day the dastardly bombing of the American Embassies in these towns rocked our lives – and completely changed many lives.
But, even as we mourn our departed heroes, we ought to rectify ourselves on a number of issues.
Kenyans, we are very slow to learn some things and our leaders are equally “inept” when it comes to some things. They have not been providing the necessary leadership to help build us a bastion against a recrudescence of social ills that have been threatening to split us into two equal halves.
Even as you read this, the monster that we created by our sheer ignorance and ineptness in dealing with “our issues” head-on is wreaking havoc in this country – so much has gone up in smoke and we pretend not to know the reasons why.
Early this year we saw, experienced and tasted the flip side of our ignorance – the monster growled out loud and the country shook!
Hypocrisy reigns supreme in this country. The people we expect to light our path as a nation so that we don’t fall into pits (some of which we, sadly, helped create!) rarely rise to the occasion. Here I am talking about our politicians, our religious leaders, our schools (the teachers and the whole school system) and the media.
Most of the time, these groups of people and institutions fail to bring us together. They, instead, fight to drive wedges between us. We fail to see them guiding us to celebrate the beauty of unity and being one. Being our examples, we fail to see them working as one (remember, example is better than precept).
We fail to see them taking the opportunities that present themselves and turning them to gold – especially opportunities that would help foster nationhood.
What is the use of ranting about how different we are and laying our weaknesses (most of which are mere stereotypes) bare at the expense of national unity?
What has all this got to do with the Nairobi bomb blast ten years ago?
The answer is simple: the solidarity and empathy exhibited by Kenyans of all walks of life when the tragedy struck.
The story of one woman’s struggle for her life under the massive rubble is worth mentioning here. This is the story of Rose Wanjiku Mwangi – newspapers called her ‘A Candle in the Wind’.
She was buried under the rubble when the American Embassy and other buildings around it came tumbling down due to the impact of the bomb. She was alive for around four days under the rubble; and she was all the while communicating with the rescuers. This spurred them to work even harder in order to save her life.
Her voice fell silent on Sunday, August 9, 1998, but on the next day, Monday, the rescue was spurred on when tapping was heard from where she was thought to be buried.
The whole nation was hoping and praying that she would be rescued. Her determination to live – the massive rubble on top of her notwithstanding – touched many people.
No one asked what tribe Rose was or, even, from which part of Kenya she came from. If any one did, then it was for a different reason. A reason far from the one some people would have today asking the very same questions.
She died less than 24hours before her body was recovered at 0300 local time on the Wednesday of that week. Millions of people in Kenya and other countries around the world mourned her death and that of others who lost their lives during the American Embassy bombing.
Rose’s spirit to live against all the odds, encapsulates the spirit that we should have as a nation. A spirit to rise above our lot; a spirit to rise above ethnic differences; a spirit to celebrate nationhood (and not just mouth the fleshless “Najivunia kuwa Mkenya”).
This is a spirit that our leaders (political, religious and school leaders) and the fourth estate (the media) can help us realize. We are tired of just existing. Can we begin living as Kenyans?
We must stir the fighting spirit within us to life and fight on till we reach the acme we aspire. As bothers and sisters; as Kenyans, we can make it!
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10:52
Share Portfolio: August 2008
» bankelele 
Drowning in Safaricom juice
8-8-08 is supposed to be a good luck date or something. 2008 has been a rough year for most companies since January. The Safaricom IPO was supposed to be the savior for investors, but has instead become an albatross on the Nairobi Stock Exchange
Heres’ my portfolio that has changed May 2008
The stable
Diamond Trust ↓
KCB ↓
Scangroup ↓
Stanbic (UG)↔
Safaricom ↓
What’s changed?
In: Safaricom
Out: Express, Sameer, Total
Increase: KCB, Safaricom
Decrease: --
Dividends Paid: KCB, Stanbic, Diamond Trust, Total, Scangroup
Unexpected gains (none) /loses everything else
Outlook: Shifted focus to banking and communications, and got out of manufacturing related stocks as the political and oil shocks continue to be felt through the economy. No foreseeable changes till next quarter, but will look at Kenya Airways if it dips lower.
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Beijing Olympics Starts in Style
» You Missed This Today is 8/8/8, a very lucky day for believers in cosmos. What is more, the spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic has just began. While many Kenyans will only sample the extravaganza on the screens, our politicians have opted to empty the public till as they book the next available flight to Beijing at our expense. Old habits die heard so they say. Our politicians have shamelessly adjourned parliamentary business to embark on expensive trip to China under the excuse of following tradition. Shame on all these scoundrels.
Beijing here we come
Despite all the political selfishness, we can at least take pride in our athletes who are guaranteed to have the Kenyan national anthem played severally as they sprint their way to Gold. If only we would have our priorities right and expand the disciplines in which we compete and capitalize on our strengths. Just imagine if the money wasted by the politicians would be channelled to the right sports and athletes. But trust our so-called leaders to feather their nests in exclusion to what is good for Kenya.
Meanwhile let the fireworks begin in Beijing and let us enjoy the spectacle as men and women sweat their way to glory. Only stringent vetting in modern sports provide no room for deception.
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6:50
Resource for entrepreneurs
» Kenyan Pundit Click here for details.
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3:48
SOPUDEP turning a house of torture into community school in Petion-Ville, Haiti
» Black Looks This time last year I was visiting Haiti and my host was Rea Dol and her family, all members of the Lavalas Movement and she herself co-founder of SOPUDEP school. SOPUDEP which created in 2001, is a private non-profit school that exists through the sheer determination of Rea and her colleagues. [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "SOPUDEP turning a house of torture into community school in Petion-Ville, Haiti", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/08/sopudep_turning_a_house_of_torture_into_community_school_in_petion-ville_haiti.html" });
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Google News Kenya now up.
» Kenyan Pundit Click here for the link.
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