- Being Kenyan is cool- Incase you haven't realised, the words Kenya and Kenyan are now household global brands. Since the Obama frenzy started a year ago and with his rising popularity ever since, being Kenyan is becoming quite cool and more people now have an interest with Kenya and anything Kenyan.
- Bling bling beggar, et al- We have been rendered helpless to the whines and whims of ambitious beggars. The route I take home everyday is always prone to traffic jams and this has rendered us commuters who make long, winding queues helpless to the whines and whims of beggars and preachers, save for the occasional weekend when we are saved dramatically from such occurrences because the average working Kenyan will be caught dead going to town on a weekend (But then the high-pitched voice from the “makanga” cuts the commuter’s sleep short as he begs loudly for them to board the matatu!)- But I digress…
- Painful High School Memories (My True Story)-- Lo Nyambok remembers going to a Kenyan high school.
- Religion, the pious worship of God-- "We do ourselves wrong, and too meanly
estimatethe holiness above us, when we deem
that any act or enjoyment good in itself, is not
good to do religiously. "
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21:04
imagine diaries
» Kenya Imagine
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20:19
Keep the US Visa to Yourself, Paradise is Here
» You Missed This Martha Karua at the height of January’s political heat couldn’t have put it more poignantly-NO NEED TO SECURE VISA, PARADISE IS HERE. So Uncle Sam Kivuitu should take heart and call the US bluff in denying him visa. If anything his deputy Kihara Mutuu had eaten from the same plate of denial. So where does that leave us Kenyans and our mentality of MOVE ON while the fundamentals of all our institutions are left to go the dogs?
It appears we are condemned to the big brother curse. With no trace or element of shame we have to wait to be pushed off the chair and start crying wolf in mother tongue for sympathy even when the sins we commit are bloody red. Please do not insult the ears with the deceptive mantra of innocent till proved guilty since conscience need no trial.
Mbeki’s resignation as SA president may have been a classic political revenge from his hitherto comrades whom he betrayed. But just like Mandela before him, he has proved that he is cut from a different political fabric compared to other African despots masquerading as custodians of their countries’ interests with every scheme plotted to auction everything within their borders.
Guillotine is here
We may conveniently choose to run from the truth and reality with the selfish MOVE ON sermon but we can hide from the hole we dug ourselves into. Thank God for small mercies doled in big brother. True there is no free lunch. The international community will not sit pretty as our so-called leaders impunity to a different level exclusively for their interests. Well, the predictable rants about neo-colonialism will definitely flood our shores but that won’t let the powers that be blink.
Kumekucha may have asked in jest the price of stealing elections. Well, the truth is that the zeroes to the right will make Zimbabwe’s inflation rate look like numerical decorations before the decimal points. The cost is huge and the perpetrators are hellbent on recouping their investments in the shortest time possible. Thanks to mother nature which works in mysterious. Now pirates have blown the cover of our own arm dealers.
The political scoundrels ran with the hounds and must now suffer the wrath of fleas. They may run but will never hide forever. It is a small world and payback time is nigh. The axe will not spare any guilty scalp and like the guillotine ECK is having its head on the chopping block. Who is next?
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A Road Less Travelled in Tsavo
» Kenya Imagine I first visited Kajire Village early last year when we went to drop our daughter’s nanny home on our way to Tsavo East National Park for the Easter holidays. As we drove along the murram road with a backdrop of the ever green Sagala hills, images from Stanley Gazemba’s novel, “Stone Hills of Maragoli” flooded my mind. I imagined young couples lying on the grass on the slopes smiling at one another as they picked at the long grass shoots. I pictured a young boy rushing the donkey drawn cart filled with jerry cans of water home so he could run off to join his mates on the football field. I imagined a few elderly men sitting on a wooden plank outside the local shop staring at the hills and exchanging the occasional comment about something or another in the village. “This place is beautiful Patricia!”
Read more from Dipesh Pabari here.
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10:22
Stepping out of the closet... for Barack Obama
» Startups in Kenya My first title was just "Stepping out of the closet" which I thought would be catchy and provocative. On further thought however, I decided to add the latter part, as there was also a danger that some might not read further than the title and proverbially judge a book by its cover. No offence intended to those who are in/out of the closet in the narrower sense of the word. I'm quite open-minded and I don't judge any one by how they like their eggs.
So back to the topic, yes, Barack Obama. Finally writing that makes me question whether I shouldn't just retreat back into the closet. You see Obama is undeniably the biggest news story of 2008, a historic candidate for POTUS, an inspirational story of achievement, and a potential 'leader of the free world'. Let's not forget that as a Kenyan I share some heritage with him (sarcastically: heck I could be his cousin!). These circumstances should require... no ... demand that I spend a respectable amount of time talking, writing, and discussing Obama.
However, when in presence of others I have done the exact opposite. I avoid blogging about, invoking, or referencing Obama, I extract myself from conversations which bring him up, I change the channel when he comes on TV; all in the pursuit of an outwardly nonchalance about him. However in my 'closet', I voraciously read news stories about him on NY Times, CNN, and occasionally, Fox News, I wake up at 1 am to watch Situation Room on CNN, I have read Dreams From My Father, I contemplate his story and wonder, if I could be as dedicated and inspirational in the pursuit of my dreams.
Why the charade you may ask?
Well upto this point, I have - like many others - fallen into the false belief that "whether he is elected as POTUS or not, it won't add any sufurias of ugali in my house" In short, it doesn't matter to me.
I'm coming to doubt that notion, and I think it does matter to me and that's why I'm stepping out of my closet today, waving my Obama 08 flag proudly. I now believe that whether or not Obama is eventually elected, his quest for the most powerful office in the world has profoundly shaped the course I'll pursue to fulfill my own dreams. If I would be so corny as to use two proverbs in one post, his case is one where its the journey and not the destination that matters. Of course, if he is eventually elected, it will add more weight to his story's influence on millions of people, but as is, Obama has inspired me to see and believe that I can be much much more.
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9:09
McCain cannot say country first and have an embarrassingly naive, gibberish and nonsensical Palin up there as vice president
» The Benin Epilogue Part I: Africa-Ready for Business Her recent interview performance have portrayed Sarah Palin as dangerously ignorant and unprepared for the job of vice president, let alone president. Given that John McCain's old age might play serious tricks , thus making Palin the next US. president,...the so called "axis of evil" would very much appreciate a Palin Presidency which would make the US. a "soft target" for terror sponsoring nations. She doesn't seem strong enough. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad would be particularly proud of a weakly naive US. presidency....READ MORE
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8:30
Acumen Fellowships Class of 2010
» Kenyan Pundit The application process is now open and closes on October 20th. “Ideal fellows include those who have already decided on a career in venture philanthropy, those who are seeking a career at the highest levels in the corporate world but want to better understand and impact problems of global poverty, and budding social entrepreneurs [...]
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6:08
Missing TEDAfrica 2008
» KA-INVESTOR 
After hearing, reading and watching stories from TED Africa conference 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania, I was so much psyched for this year’s TED Africa 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa. I saw a tip off from White Africa (read more here) and I rushed to apply. I even went further to mark my outlook calendars (something I rarely do) for the entire period - September 29-October 1, 2008 - that event was to take place, just incase I forgot. But on May 18th 2008, the event was canceled, dashing my dreams and hopes of ever attending this phenomenal conference.
Time went by and I totally forgot about it. But yesterday, my outlook started posting notes on my screen. So I thought, why not remind everyone of an opportunity we missed and let’s hope that the next one (if it ever be) will be planned well in time.
Online Reminder: I’ve been in trouble many times for forgetting some major events and anniversaries. Can someone please suggest to me a good online reminder application that one can use easily?
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5:08
Random Photo
» bankelele Random Photo
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3:00 Coping with public fear: "Bailouts only add to sense of panic," O'Grady, The Independent (London)
» Marian's Blog We're reading Sean O'Grady's article in today's Independent: "... no amount of taxpayer money, no vote in Congress or the Commons and no speech by a president or prime minister can now fully restore the confidence that has been drained...
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Why Judge Johann Kriegler Is A Conman At Best
» You Missed This Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Kenyans are idiots sometimes. That is the truth. They have great respect for people’s academic qualifications and experience without looking too deeply into the background of those people. Especially if those people are white. They also have too much respect for cash without asking themselves exactly where that cash came from (but that is a story for another day).
Johann Kriegler
What I would mainly like to dwell on today is one Afrikaan conman judge who came into town and had Kenyans eating out of his hand in no time at all. His name is of course Johann Kriegler.
Anybody who had a chance to view any of the TV call in shows the judge participated in would not have missed the anger at the judge from many Kenyans calling in. And with good reason.
There are many things about Kriegler and his report that are very annoying but top on the list is the man’s insistence that he found no evidence of fiddling at the vote tallying centre at KICC. What hog wash!!! Mutahi Ngunyi’s grandmother would have found plenty (and she has no legal training).
Let us for a minute replay some of the telling eerie events of last December.
As Kenyans were anxiously waiting for the election results, the police commissioner, Major Gen Hussein Ali held a lengthy press briefing at the KICC with journalists where representatives of the political parties were present. The gist of it was to tell Kenyans that they must accept election results irrespective of which candidate was declared winner. Nobody paid much attention to this because at the time the ODM candidate Raila Odinga was leading by a wide margin. But looking at it in retrospect and looking at what happened next, it is quite clear what was going on. Kenyans were being prepared for big time fraud.
The good judge has also insinuated with a straight face that one of the main problems that could have created mistakes in the tallying at the constituency level was the fact that returning officers did not have electronic calculators to add up the numerous votes.
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To cap this whole comedy, many Kenyans have received the Kriegler report with open arms because according to them the judge was “very wise” in not “rocking the boat” so soon after the horrors we saw early this year in post election violence.
Excuse me, this is the exact same attitude that culminated in those very troubles. If you take time to review many comments in this blog in the run up to the ill-fated general elections, you will realize that there were many people who felt that it was very wrong for us here to dare discuss tribal tensions which in their view did not exist at all. In fact the general feeling was that it was this writer who was creating and fanning those tribal tensions.
Well now we want to sweep under the carpet what happened last December. That is Kenyans for you.
Personally I am still very angry that somebody would have wasted my time getting me to vote when the election results had already been “fixed.” And now to make matters even worse, we have invited an Afrikaans judge (remember the guys who legalized apartheid?) who in private has shown lots of contempt for Kenyans and in public the same by trying to hoodwink a whole nation in telling us about pocket calculators and absolutely nothing else at the end of a high profile tour of our country.
The sooner Kenyans looked in the mirror and cut the cow waste and faced the truth, the better it will be for all of us. Nay, at least we will have a fighting chance of saving this great country. There is absolutely no hope if we continue to bury our head in the sand and pretend that the forest is not already burning.
General biographical information on Kriegler
Raila moves into the premises traditionally reserved for leader of the official opposition
Now US says arms in hijacked ship were headed to South Sudan
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0:51
Rendille Home - Made of USAID Food Bags
» AfriGadget .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }
Rendille Home - Made of USAID Food Bags, originally uploaded by whiteafrican.From the AfriGadget Flickr Archives. A traditional Rendille home in the deserts of Northern Kenya reuses USAID bags to make their structure.
[See more images like this on the AfriGadget Flickr group.]
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Do European banks need a bailout? And by whom?
» Kenya Imagine As the fallout from the financial crisis continues to spread, it is striking to see a new phase of failures amongst European banks.Amongst the very first to be hit last year (with the collapse of IKB in Germany, and the run on Northern Rock, which subsequently had to be nationalized), European banks had lately appeared to fare better as Bear Stearns collapsed, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac were bailed out, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, AIG was rescued, Merrill Lynch was swallowed and Washington Mutual failing and being taken over. As the US is discussing its $700 billion bailout of Goldman Sachs and friends, we've seen Fortis needing its own governmental rescue, Bradford & Bingley being nationalised, Hypo Real saved by other German banks, and worries about a number of other entities come to the fore.
Read more from Jérôme Guillet here.
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