19:31
The so-called Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) appoints a STATE-OWNED CHINESE FIRM to pre-verify goods coming in from China.
After recent scares about toothpastes deliberately laced with DEG & milk deliberately powder tainted by melamine... the idiots at KEBS chooses a fox (CCIC) to guard the henhouse (Kenyan consumers).
The chinese manufacturers happily export sub-standard products to the USA - with a somewhat vigilant FDA - let alone developing countries with non-existent labs!
I have argued that Kenya shouldn't import food products from china in view of the poor quality & lack of morals!
So I wonder what the chinese have paid the officials at KEBS....
What do you think?
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15:30
Kenya Railways and GOLF CITY
» Kenya Imagine The Kenya Railways people, have a full page advert in this week's east African. They want to build a luxury city right at the gateway to Nairobi. I quote,
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Kabuye Rwanda and Universal Jurisdiction
» Kenya Imagine This one is for Daktari and Gathara over on the article on Waki.Again from this week's East African. Three things you did not know,
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11:11 The Swahili Bed
» AfriGadget 
The Swahili bed was in a recent article on MAKE Magazine (a publication that inspired AfriGadget’s creation). In it they discuss why this style of bed is so useful on the hot and humid East African coast.
“In Kenya, the most common and most useful piece of furniture is the rot- and bedbug-resistant Swahili bed.”
“In most houses, you can only find one type of furniture: the Swahili bed. It’s used as a couch, bed, table, and everything else. It’s comfortable and perfect for the hot, humid climate.”
The beds are made from locally grown mvuli or mbamba kofi trees, then straps are created out of palmetto leaves which are soaked in salt water and woven into rope.
Years ago I used to export furniture like this from East Africa, so it’s something that I happen to know quite a bit about. Which provides yet another lesson for those of us who live, or work, in Africa. That is, items that seem mundane to us, as we live our lives in Africa, can be quite exceptional if we only stop to really look.
(via Timbuktu Chronicles)
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8:58
The Death Of Consumerism
» For Love and Money Retail sales data for the 4 weeks ending November 1 couldn't have come at a worse time. With the exception of Wal-Mart, which reported a 2.4% gain in same store sales, all the other retailers posted negative numbers.
If you consider that more than 70% of retail sales are tied to the Christmas festivities (including the Thanksgiving holiday), then you realize why the U.S. economy is in trouble. A 10% drop in sales over this period is much worse than a 10% drop in the summer months.
Unlike in the previous years whereby retail stores devote a lot of space for holiday merchandise, there was little fanfare regarding Halloween paraphernalia this year. Even in the sub-divisions, there were fewer Halloween decorations adorning the front yards.
It's no wonder that Electronic retail giant Circuit City has filed for bankruptcy protection and Best Buy issued a profit warning despite aggressively cutting prices. For instance, the 50 inch Panasonic plasma TV that I bought last year now retails for $1,399 down from $1,699. And you can be sure that the price will come down as we approach Christmas day.
For people who have been putting away large purchases, this may be the best time to buy stuff that you need. And for investors wanting to buy into cheap retail stocks, they may have to wait as the retail stocks are bound to get cheaper. I'd wait until after the December retail sales data is announced in January next year afterwhich we will know how bad the consumer slowdown is going to be.
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7:34
More About Tandaa, 2008, the Content Conference
» What An African Woman Thinks I forgot to mention a number of things that stood out for me at the content conference last Friday:
First, Bitange Ndemo expounded a little on the government's vision with regard to ICTs and one of the things he said that really impressed me was that discussions were underway to figure out how to ensure that every university student owned a laptop. I'm not sure how wide a gap there is between discussion and eventual implementation, but I have to say, the conversation itself is encouraging.
Second, the ICT board has set aside a sum total of 4 million US dollars to be disbursed over the next four years to fund feasible Kenya content generation projects. I know before the conference Mwalimu Mati was already raising the red flag on the actual disbursement of the funds. We wait to see how transparent the process will be. The proof of the pudding and all that.
Third, in response to a question that I forget, Paul Kukubo tossed back a very interesting question to the audience: what exactly is Kenyan content? Is it content created in Kenya? Or content created by Kenyans, wherever they might be in the world? Or even is it content created specifically for Kenya never mind who created it or where they were when they created it?It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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4:40
Turning rubbish into dinners in Kibera
» AfriGadget There are few things that make me madder than seeing lorry loads of charcoal going into schools, hospital and other institutions in Kenya. These places are wrecking havok on our natural environment because they need energy for cooking - but wont use clean (but more expensive) options like butane gas. Another thing that really irks me is the plastic waste that is taking over our country, it is disgusting, unhygenic and am environmental disaster that we not only drive by, or walk past every single day - we contribute to it through our negligent shopping habits (how many times does a lump of butter have to be bagged in Nakumatt?).
So when one of Kenya’s youngest architects, Mumu Musuvo and his boss Jim Archer told me about the Kibera community cooker two years ago I was very interested. They were looking for funding from the company I ran. I studied the design and took in the environmental implications, saw the potential but my company was not biting. We turned his company, Planning Systems down but I’ve been secretly monitoring the project which was adopted by UNEP and launched earlier this year.
This post is a massive send out to Planning Systems to congratulate them for being highly commended by judges in the Energy, Waste and Recycling category at the 2008 World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, Spain - it’s reported here on CNN. The communal cooker is turning rubbish into fuel to feed residents of one of Africa’s biggest slums, Kibera,
turning rubbish into energy
Garbage is brought to the community cooker by volunteers shovel itinto one end of a giant concrete oven. At the other end are the hotplates where the community cook and boil water.
“It might smell a bit but it doesn’t make our food taste any different,” says Virginia Wamaitha, as she pours sugar into her steaming pan of chai – the gently spiced tea loved by Kenyans. “It will taste just like chai should.”
Any one for a cuppa?
The garbage to fuel oven is sponsored by UNEP as one way to clean up Kenya’s slums while reducing dependency on wood and charcoal to protect forests. The community cooker burns garbage and generates heat for sterilizing water, for ovens used by community groups, as well as individuals. The original concept was that a kikapu (basket) of garbage would equate to an hour of cooking time on the stove.
What kind of garbage? Any, plastics, food wastes even clothes - anything that will burn really! But doesn’t that produce toxic fumes you ask?? This is what’s so clever about the project. Using technology that I don’t understand the oven burns at temperatures of up to 930 degrees F. which basically detoxifies many hazardous pollutants.
“It uses a superheated steel plate inside the incinerator box to vaporize drops of water. The oxygen released then helps burn discarded “sump” oil from vehicles – itself a pollutant in the slums – driving temperatures higher”.
The process is simple enough to be controlled by locally trained volunteers.
According to UNEP this is the first of its kind, and it cost $10,000.
Personally I think it’s a brilliant idea, a great solution to slum garbage disposal, water treatment and hygiene (hot water an be used for community showers, to clean toilets, and to cook meals - therefore is safer (no more unstable jiko’s with pots of boiling water that kids tumble into on the floor). Plus the cooker can be used for commercial purposes - womens groups are using the cooker to produce baked products like queen cakes (you know the ones - “coke and keki”
Imagine if this could be replicated in slums around the world, in IDP camps like Kakuma, Dadaab, and in hospitals, prisons, and schools.
Don’t let me blow their trumpet - help share this important story. You can read more praise for this project here and Rob Crilly on CS monitor has a detailed article here and its also here on Sustainable Development International website here and on Sustainable Footprint here
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Reflections: My Neighbors They Raped Me
» Kenya Imagine On the first of January 2008 we were still fearful. We didn’t open our business.
I worked at the Eldama Ravine shopping centre at Mama Faith’s Shop. We owned the shop. It was just next to my house – they are joined together.
But I stayed at home that day because I was scared. We left the shop locked up.
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0:55
The Value Of A Headstrong, Stubborn Opinionated President
» You Missed This Headstrong, stubborn, opinionated.
Are those the qualities you would want in your president? Are there benefits in having such a man sitting in State house or is it a recipe for disaster and the possible shut down of a nation? Well, think about it as you read on.
Former United States ambassador to Kenya Smith Hempstone (now deceased) worked tirelessly to help Kenyans get rid of the dictatorial Moi regime in the 1980s. It is no secret that the lovable “nyama choma ambassadeur” overstepped his mark as a diplomat in this country many times. I mean how does a peaceful protest march in the city against the Moi regime end up at the US embassy, with wananchi demanding that the ambassador address them?
Still in my book extreme times call for extreme measures and may history never forget to record the contributions of this white bearded burly man in the long road Kenyans have walked towards freedom and justice.
My apologies for getting emotionally carried away with Hempstone, but what I wanted to say was that one of Hempstone’s noble initiatives was to unite the then opposition to field a single candidate against President Moi in the initial multi-party elections of the 1990s. His efforts were always frustrated by headstrong politicians who believed that they would go it alone and beat Moi and his well oiled machinery single-handedly. One name in particular kept on popping up in Hempstone’s lips as a major stumbling block to any semblance of opposition unity. That name was Mwai Kibaki.
Fast forward to 2005 and the historic referendum. After years in the dark, many Kenyans were beginning to get a glimpse into the character of this Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki. Numerous people advised him to save the country from chaos and call off the referendum. He stubbornly refused insisting that he was winning and the Yes, banana vote would carry the day.
Fast forward to 2008 and somebody suggested that Barack Obama may have an outside chance of winning the US presidency. Insiders say that the president almost had a fit. He who had started going to the United States in the 1950s surely knew that country very well and there was no chance, even if every American fell dead of a black man being elected president. Of course the careful damage control that has been played out recently including those silly stories of how Kibaki gave Obama’s dad a job may fool some Kenyans as it is designed to do.
By the way one of the favourite means by which the president dismisses views and opinions that do not go down well with him is by calling people “young man.” You will remember in the run up to the 2007 elections Lucy Kibaki talked about a young man causing the president sleepless nights. She was simply echoing what was being discussed in private. In my view both Kalonzo Musyoka and Raila Odinga are NOT young men. If they are then Jimmy Kibaki must be a toddler.
Indeed through out the long political career of Mwai Kibaki he has been a lone ranger in the way he plays his politics. Lone rangers are impossible to advice and are set in their ways (whether they work or not). That character in the president is about to earn him yet another place in the history books for the wrong reasons. Legal experts say that there is more that enough evidence to prosecute Mwai Kibaki when he leaves office for various crimes. In sharp contrast Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, that perfected Machiavellian master of the political game was a listener and listened to everybody. That is the secret behind his long survival. And what is more he covered his legal backside admirably. The man must have read Mario Puzo’s classic, The Godfather, several times. I mean he was very careful whom he gave orders to and of course he signed nothing. The result is that nobody can pin him down for any of his many sins against the Kenyan people let alone prosecute him successfully.
Mwai Kibaki is a whole different kettle of fish. The when-I-was-lecturing-in-Makerere President has been way too careless. So careless that his handlers are having sleepless nights now wondering how they can scheme a peaceful retirement for the man under whose watch the country sunk into tribal chaos and its’ deepest crisis ever.
Take it from me, if that man lives long enough, prepare yourself to see him in images transmitted all over the world, surrounded by a battery of lawyers facing serious charges but still as headstrong as ever as to how his legal defence should be handled. And he may just be right once again. The way he was right about Obama, the referendum and how Kenyans can never elect a “Jaruo young man” as president... even if the incumbent fell asleep in State House and forgot there was an election until the last 3 months or so.
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Swahili Fashion Week Ends as East African Women Go Nude
Miriam Makeba- A Tribute to Mama Africa
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Hannah's Resolve: Let me die in peace
» Kenya Imagine This story pulled at my heart strings. A 13-yr old girl has refused a heartplant that could save her life.
Hannah was diagnosed with leukimia when she was only 4, and has had been in and out of hospitals more times than you can imagine.
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I am sorry I lied!
» Kenya Imagine This week I read something that triggered some fond in a sad way memories of my life in the UK. I can't really remember where I read it as I am one of those people who read several materials simulteneously, but it was something to do with the perception of Africa by the less travelled Brit!
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Taxation: MPs and Judges have it wrong
» Kenya Imagine Taxation is premised on the exercise of sovereign legislative authority. Elected representatives lay down the general policy and legal framework for taxation in all democratic societies in line with the celebrated maxim of “no taxation without representation.” "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." -Benjamin Franklin, 1789.
Parliament is supposed to be the embodiment of the sovereign will of the people and the personification of their collective legislative wisdom. Whereas there is a general consensus amongst ordinary people that everybody, including Members of Parliament and other Constitutional office holders should pay tax, our MPs and Judges of the High Court think otherwise.
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