246 items tagged "Kenya"
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CBK Profits II
» bankelele CBK Profits II -
Nairobi Christmas Tourism Expo
» bankelele Nairobi Christmas Tourism Expo
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9:58
Financial Times Special Report on Kenya
» Kenyan Pundit The Financial Times has just put together a special feature report on Kenya. The FT has done a number of great articles on Kenya this year so I’m looking forward to reading the report – includes articles on the wave of kidnappings to hit Nairobi (just heard from a person in the know that the incidents are actually seriously under-reported); the Mau Forest; and the dithering stock exchange.
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Former Mayor of Bogota to speak at University of Nairobi
» Kenyan Pundit The Institute for Transport and Development Policy, Institute for Development Studies (IDS)*, at the University of Nairobi and the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD)* at Columbia University’s Earth Institute are honored to invite you to a public lecture by Former Mayor of Bogotá, visionary politician and urban strategist, Enrique Peñalosa.
What is a Good City: Public Space, Transport, and Quality of Life
A talk by Enrique PeñalosaVENUE: Education Building, Main Campus, University of Nairobi
Friday, October 16, 2009
9AM – 12PM
During his tenure as mayor of Bogotá, Mr. Peñalosa was able to successfully transform a city defined as chaotic and hopeless into a city that is now an international model for urban development. Mr. Peñalosa will discuss how he championed this transformation through various efforts, including increased citizen involvement, creating a new and highly successful bus-based transit system, and turning a dilapidated downtown avenue into a dynamic pedestrian public space. Mr. Peñalosa will share the obstacles experienced, many of which are similar to those facing Nairobi, lessons learned during his tenure as Mayor of Bogotá, as well as the critical elements needed in urban development to achieve a higher quality of life.
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Update on the Reconciliation agreements
» Kenyan Pundit The South Consulting report on the implementation of the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) agreements, covering the period July-September 2009, can now be found on: [www.dialoguekenya.org]
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Blog find of the week: Discover JKUAT
» Kenyan Pundit Wow, what an eye-opener. We rarely think of Kenyan public universities as centers of innovation anymore (at least I don’t). So discovering the JKUAT blog has been a revelation. Plus so much of the news around Kenya is negative nowadays, hard to remember why we love our country so much some times.
Highlights for me - insights into mobile development classes taking place there and seeing just how impactful the partnership with MIT-AITI is (different model for aid perhaps…teach skills rather than support corrupt govts?).
It’s relatively new, a little over a month old so I hope they keep up with the content.
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Our Turn to Eat Available via M-Pesa
» Kenyan Pundit Michaela Wrong’s book, “It’s Our Turn to Eat” is still not being openly sold in Nairobi in most book stores, so a small group of enterprising Kenyans have got together to import some copies of “It’s Our Turn to Eat” into Nairobi and sell them via the web, using Mpesa. They’re starting off with an experimental 150 copies, if it works they’ll step up the numbers. The books are available now, on: [www.thekenyashop.com] -
Reconciliation agreements report
» Kenyan Pundit The full South Consulting report on the implementation of the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) agreements covering the period May – June 2009 can be found here.
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Nairobi Book Fair Sep 23-27
» Kenyan Pundit Click here for more details.
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2009 Nairobi Motor Show
» bankelele 2009 Nairobi Motor Show
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For Caroline Mutoko fans
» Kenyan Pundit She speaks at MINDSPEAK tomorrow (Saturday August 15th)
Time: 0930 am onwards:
Location: Nairobi WestGate Cinema
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Express Kenya 2009 AGM
» bankelele Express Kenya 2009 AGM
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Full Mau List
» Kenyan Pundit Supposedly full list of Mau beneficiaries who want compensation.
This is just pure thievery!
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Documentary on Mungiki now on Youtube
» Kenyan Pundit Click here to watch this eye-opening documentary on Mungiki. I had blogged about the documentary a few months ago, I think it was airing on Discovery in the US.
As I keep saying, one of my big concerns is that this scenario is replicating itself all over Kenya.
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CDF Review Task Force Meetings
» Kenyan Pundit Public meetings being held in Nairobi tomorrow, see here for details.
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Kenya on the Brink Conference Video
» Kenyan Pundit In case you needed confirmation that Kenys is in the hands of a bunch of jokers (to put it mildly). Conference video is up here.
Hat tip @nairobinotes.
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Storymoja Hay Festival: 31st July – 2nd Aug
» Kenyan Pundit This looks AMAZING! Wish I could be there…
What is the Storymoja Hay Festival?
A three day international celebration of stories, ideas, writing and contemporary culture through storytelling, mchongoano, music, books, live discussion forums, demonstrations, workshops, open-mike sessions, debates, exhibitions, live performances and competitions. It is organised as collaboration between the Hay Festival (UK) and Storymoja, a young publishing company formed by five local writers.
The Storymoja Hay Festival will be held in a temporary ‘tented city’ at the Impala grounds and will include a main stage for live performances and competitions, and twelve themed tents in which twelve x 90 minute events will be held concurrently. Each event will be headlined by star guests in each particular field.
What is the purpose of the Storymoja Hay Festival?The festival hopes to encourage us to ‘own’ our problems by exploring our situations and stories, and search for solutions by generating platforms for discussion and debate. To achieve our 2030 vision, we need to read widely, discuss ideas, and exploit our diversity of stories/backgrounds for nation building. Simply put, the Storymoja Hay Festival is a celebration of ideas expressed in many forms.
Who is invited?
Day-long fun for the whole family with multiple events targeting men, women and children. Programmes will be published in the Nation, and distributed at ticket sales outlets including bookshops and Silver Bird Cinemas.
Where and when?Venue: Impala Club, Ngong Road, Nairobi
Dates: Friday 31st July, Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd August, 2009.
Cost
Adults: Ksh 500/ per day or buy in advance for Ksh 1000 for 3-days (has to be bought by 30th July)
Kids 6-12 yrs: Ksh 200/day or buy in advance for Ksh 400 for 3-days (has to be bought by 30th July)
Full programme online at Story Moja’s website. You may also contact: info@storymojaafrica.co.ke; or Millie@hayfestival.com. Telephone Millie, Carol, Liz or Sheila 0722 838 161 or 0736 758 392
Some highlights:
- Come listen and chat with an array of forty plus African and international writers, thinkers, filmmakers including Nobel Laureates: Wole Soyinka and Wangari Maathai, as well as academy award nominee Hanif Kureishi, million-book selling author Vikram Seth, BBC War Correspondent Kate Adie, professional UK storytellers Jan Blake and Daniel Morden, Head of UNEP Achim Steiner, rising African stars on international scene Petina Gappah, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Tony Kan, Chika Unigwe, Monica Arac, Judy Kibinge, Doreen Baingana, Dayo Forster, Parselelo Kantai, Sitawa Namwalie.
- Storymoja Master Storyteller Competition finals (hosted by Eric Omondi formerly of Churchill Live who won this title while still a student at Daystar)
- Mchongoano Challenge hosted by Xavier Nato, better known as Jemo on Wash and Set. Open to everybody. Come with your sharpest mchongoanos.
- Men Under Attack, a provocative discussion on the changing role of men in our society led by Oyunga Pala
- Fab at Forty Plus – Terry Mungai of Ashleys, Mildred Awiti and a host of fabulous women offer tips on how to look and stay Fab at Forty Plus
- What’s Hot/What’s Not on the Nairobi Stock Exchange? Aly Khan Satchu, author of Anyone Can Be Rich offers hot tips.
- Be Inspired Before You Expire: renowned motivational speaker from Congo, Pepe Minambo will renew your spirit!
- Rasna Warah proposes that International Aid Does More Harm than Good for our Country’s Development. Come join the big debate.
- Makini School will run a spelling Bee for children that anyone 6-14 years can register to join.
- Missing Voices: A discussion led by Hon Njoki Ndungu about those not/under represented on the political scene and what needs to be done to accommodate them.
- What is Kenya? ask those from marginalised communities in the North. Come join this important discussion and contribute your views about forming ONE Kenya.
- Green Profits: Biofuels, organic farming and eco-tourism are earning green profits for innovative eco-friendly entrepreneurs. Join Lorna Omuodo of the Jatropha Project and be inspired to seek green business solutions.
- The Kids Zone will host a range of organised and supervised activities including art & craft, song, dance, storytelling, puppet shows, face painting, bouncing castles etc. run by Storymoja in concert with a specialist children’s entertainment company, Motion and Arts. Those five and under need to be accompanied by an adult.
- Music concerts by East African artists: Matonya (Tanzania), Peter Myles (Uganda), Sauti Sol, Ground Zero and Antony Mwangi (Kenya ) will be the climax of each day’s entertainment.
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Commissioners for the Kenyan TJRC announced
» Kenyan Pundit Pretty solid line-up (see I’m not always critical of the govt!).
Amb. Bethuel A. Kiplagat – Chairman
Ms. Betty Murungi – Vice – Chairperson
Tom Ojienda
Ms. Margaret Wambui Ngugi Shava
Ms. Tecla Namachanja
Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Ahmed Sheikh FarahInternational Experts:
Ms. Gertrude Chawatama – Zambia
Berhanu Dinka – Ethiopia
Ronald Siye – United States of America
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Motoring Moment: Bentley, Roundabouts, Crime
» bankelele Motoring Moment: Bentley, Roundabouts, Crime
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Historical context of Isiolo/Samburu raids/violence
» Kenyan Pundit Underlying the recent flare-up of violence in the area is a complex history, and though the natural inclination is to dismiss the news reports as the typical “banditry” and “cattle-rustling” that goes on in Northern/North-Eastern Kenya and point to the current drought as the trigger (lack of water / pasture is playing a role but it’s not the full story), I think it’s helpful to try and unpack the reports that are coming in and offer the context that the mainstream media won’t offer. So I’m posting a bit of historical background from one of my sources below…feel free to add and/or challenge in the comments. You’ll realize that we know so very little about this Kenya of ours…where are our documenters? Writers? Story-tellers? Journalists? Historians?
My point with these posts is not to highlight the victimization of one side vs. the other (though victimization is happening), but to point out the following bigger picture concerns with an eye towards 2012: government interference on one side; the troubling easy access to arms; the implications growing spread of ethnic-based militia around the country; the disturbing role of Somalia/s; the powerful role of a provincial administration (grown exponentially under Kibaki) that is accountable to no one; the inability of the govt to secure the place.
P.S. Anyone looking to help get the story out, help in other ways please email me: kenyanpundit-at-gmail
On to the history…
Families close to my own first came back to Laikipia in very small numbers in the drought of 1980. After every 4-5 years most often in response to drought more and more Samburu families moved onto Western Laikipia. Many like bought land others just came. They all thought that they were coming back Home to the land they call Ndororr from which they had been evicted in 1922-23. When Kiliako age set were Warriors. Some Mekuri were initiated just on the Western boundary of P&D ranch in 1936 but after that Samburu settlement stopped on Laikipia stopped for nearly 50 years. except for those who still worked on the large commercial cattle ranches . The Samburu return was slow and steady and remarkably peaceful but by the mid 1990s there were a number of Government led initiatives to burn Samburu houses and bomas and force them to go back North and East. None of these efforts to move the Samburu was very effective. Until the Pokot finally got support from State actors.
In the mid 1990’s large numbers of Pokot and their cattle also moved onto western Laikipia where for several years they coexisted peacefully as, Latia, neighbors, with only minor exchanges of small stock theft. But at that time the Pokot were carrying out increasingly effective cattle raids against the Turkana in South Turkana district. These armed raids were going strongly already in the mid 1970’s and escalated dramatically after the Kenya police commissioner at the time Bernard Hinga went into partnership with the main Somali trading family based in Maralal and headed by Yusuf Mohammed Ismael where they shared a 5000 acre ranch in North Central Laikipia. At that time guns and ammunitions were being sold to both sides to speed up the incentive for both Turkana and Pokot to step up their cattle raiding to both steal and recover from raids on both sides.
It took nearly twenty years but the Pokots with greater access to political protection and power vastly reduced the herds held by the Turkana. The bulk of the Turkana poulation was driven into towns. The raids by Pokot were initiated in the very late 1990s as Turkana was destocked and attention shifted from raiding Turkana to raiding Western Samburu.
The Pokot boasted that they would “urbanize the Samburu” the same way we drove the Turkana off their range lands. After the Ogaden conflict of 1982-83 the Borana pastoral people lost their cattle being squeezed between Samburu and Somali and this surely set the stage for the recent attacks.
The past 3-4 years have been devastating to Samburu cattle herds with at least 11,000 herd being driven off by Pokot raiders without significant recovery or compensation. The raids are often described as reciprocal, mutual and traditional but in fact these days successful large scale cattle raiders require partnering with individuals who can support the raids with State Power.
In one incredible case the Samburu DC at the time was in the air in a police or GSU helicopter when the Pokot raiders (whom he was supporting) knocked him out of the sky with a lucky RPG round (they thought that since they had raided Samburu and were running off stolen stock that the Helicopter was trying to recover stolen stock so they killed the DC by mistake when he was just trying to be sure that the Pokot raiders got away unharmed! The widely shared Samburu reaction was that the DC had been cursed by Samburu women whose houses had been burnt six moths before in operations the DC had OK’d. He was quoted in the press at the time saying “It is not possible that any Samburu houses have been burned in the recent operations to get these nomads to go back to their home district since it is well known that the Samburu have no houses, instead they live in tiny huts made just of mud and sticks”!
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Kenya on the Brink: Democratic Renewal or Deepening Conflict?
» Kenyan Pundit For DC folks, sorry for the late notice just got this yesterday. Marende and other parliamentarians expected to be in attendance.
Date: July 22, 2009
Location: National Endowment for Democracy, 1025 F St, NW Suite 800, Washington, DC 20004
Agenda
8:30– 9:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00– 9:30 Opening Address by Congressman Don Payne
9:30– 10:45 Panel: “The Urgency of Democratic Reform:Summoning the Political Will”
10:45– 11:00 Coffee Break
11:00– 12:15 Panel: “Righting Kenya’s Course: The Urgent Tasks Ahead”
12:15– 1:00 Lunch
1:00 -2:00 Luncheon Address by Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson
“Kenya and the U.S. – Meeting the Growing Challenge in East Africa”
2:00 Adjournment
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Update on Isiolo/Samburu: must read
» Kenyan Pundit I’m posting reports that I’ve received in response to my earlier post, I’ve not verified the information but the sources appear credible and at the very least warrant further investigation.
Kenyan media. Again. Please step up. What the frick is going in in North Eastern Kenya?
Citizen reporters, please keep the info coming.
REPORTS:
- On Tuesday, July 1, the Samburu community of Sera, population 300, was attacked by Somali and Borana forces as villagers slept. Sera is located approximately 83 miles NW of Archer’s Post in Samburu North. 15 people were shot in the attack, leaving 8 critically wounded and 5 dead, including a young girl. Over 1000 cattle were taken from 8 herds. The cattle, originating from the Samburu West community of Laisamis, had been herded through this area in search of a place to graze because of the widespread drought. The attacks were reminiscent of the February attacks by the Kenyan police which resulted in the loss of thousands of head of cattle. Similarly, large lorries and Landcruisers were used to transport the stolen cattle and raiders. There has been no investigation or response by the Kenyan authorities to recover the cattle or to arrest those responsible for the murders and injuries in this attack. The Samburu East MP Raphael Letimalo gave a press conference on 3rd July which has not yet been published in the Kenya press.
- On the evening of Monday July 6, Samburu moran warriors successfully defended their people and cattle from a similar raid SE of Lerata in Samburu East, the 2nd attack in just days. This attack occurred at the Nachamune area near the Ewaso River, 40 km east of Archers Post. Borana and Somali raiders surrounded the bomas at dusk, just after their livestock came into the boma, and began shooting at women and children. One group of moran escorted all children and women out of their homes to hiding places while the remaining moran fought off the attackers. They requested back up from local government officials such as the area MP, DO, councilors, and others to assist when the Kenyan police refused to intervene.
- On Monday July 13 at approximately 6 PM, a group of Somali Borana raiders attacked a Turkana community in Ngara Mara, between Archers Post and Isiolo, accusing the Turkana community of sympathizing with the Samburu tribe. They stole 450 cattle and kidnapped 2 children, reminiscent of the first attacks in February of this year on a Samburu community near the Kalama Wildlife Conservancy 6 km from Lerata, where 300 cattle and 2 children were kidnapped. Those children were later found dead with their throats slit.
- According to Samburu District County Council officer Raphael Leilikei of Archer’s Post, the 2 young Turkana children, ages 8 and 9, from the community of Ngara Mara were also found murdered the following day in a similar fashion, throats slit. (They were badly mutilated, there are pictures) – The cattle have not yet been recovered and there has been no police response to the murders or thefts.
- At approximately 1 PM on July 17, fighting broke out in the northern Kenya town of Isiolo, according to Kenya army leiutenant James Lerinainen. Armed Borana and Somali gunmen opened fire in a marketplace, targetting Turkana and Samburu tribesmen trading in the city center. 15 people are dead and many more injured. 3 police were shot and killed by the Borana and Somali gunmen, as well as 3 Turkana. In the fighting that ensued, 12 Borana were shot by Turkana. Fighting took place in the marketplace, at a petrol station, and at the bus station.
- At 7am the following morning, July 18th, 4 more Turkana were again shot dead by Borana and Somali gunmen in the marketplace. 3 lorries filled with police arrived tonight July 18 in Archer’s Post to reoccuppy the outpost.
- “I believe the marked increase in intensity and impunity of the Pokot raids against the Samburu that you summarise so well in Western Laikipia during the past three years has mainly to do with the fact that cattle are now fetching~ $1000 USD per head in So Sudan as cattle markets resume and So Sudan Pastoralists now have access to money and are able to refinancing of the herds that the lost in more than 30 years of civil war.”
OTHER REPORTS OF GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE ON ONE SIDE
- ” The raids of our cattle in the west by the Pokot supported by the government in the background which have gone on for over 3 years and still continue are one problem and are connected to the raids that took place more recently in the east.”
-”A total of 4122 Samburu cattle were reported taken by the recent GOK raids, and these were taken to pay back the 52 which the Samburu attempted to return to the DO and the OPCD before the raids started. But the government officers said they didn’t want the Meru cattle. We think this was because the raids against us were already being planned.”
- “If the governemt wants to solve this problem, the first thing they must do is remove Hassan Noor Hassan as the Provincial Commissioner for the Rift Valley Province.”
- “The Government should also be aware that the so-called Borana MP for Isiolo is in fact a Somali, and he manipulates the Borana to attack us. Both Borana and Samburu suffer because of this.”
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What the hell is going on in Isiolo/Samburu?
» Kenyan Pundit Two days ago, I received an email from a friend of a friend asking if I had any knowledge of what was going on in the Samburu area as far attacks on indigenous Samburu people by government forces. I had vaguely recalled seeing the usual “government chasing cattle rustlers” story in the newspapers over the last few weeks, but confessed that I was essentially clueless.
That email sparked my interest and I started doing a bit of research (on Google and my new handy resource for all and sundry Twitter) hoping I could come with at least a link or two to send the friend of a friend in the right direction. I also reached out to my contacts in the human rights field thinking perhaps that they may have a better sense of what was going on.
Turns out, my cursory research has unearthed more questions than answers. And very disturbing questions at that.
The first stories I came across in the local media, were the typical fighting over resources/pasture/bandits ones.
How six cops can be shot dead by cattle rustlers is a whole other can of worms relating to whether the government is really in charge of North Eastern province and whether it really cares…but I digress.
More recent stories begin to hint at an ethnic element to the fighting talking of organized forced evictions of the Samburu and Turkana from their grazing lands. The local PC appears to be, in not so many words, clueless. [In all fairness, if this older article from 2000 is anything to go by, the clan/ethnic/land/politics issues in that area are very complicated and it's easy for me to lob cheapshots]
A bit more digging plus stories from my local contacts and more complexities (and things that are worrying me) emerge.
First is the government’s reluctance to address insecurity issues in the area (a well-known refrain), and when the government does act, as the author points out the action is excessive, arbitrary, and without any follow-up of some sort.
Second, is the issue of government picking sides. It is now a well-known fact that the government has backed Kuti and his people (Borana) against the Samburu/Turkana, by arming the Borana. WTF? I’ll see it again WTF? Do we now have a government that is in the business of creating militias all over the country? In the post-2007 environment? These buffoons are so not very serious. From conversations I’ve been having with folks on the ground, the number of ethnic militias solidifying / growing throughout the country is very troublesome. Inspired by the “success” of Mungiki. See Baghdad Boys, who are slowly taking over Kisumu as a case in point; remnants of those armed in the Rift Valley who are “ready to emerge should Ruto be touched”; the Sabaot guys…the list is growing. Throw in the huge population of angry, unemployed young men all over the country (eh, hello rising crime) and you can see where this is going. And the government is arming folks in Isiolo?!
Third, more background reading I’ve done suggests that MPs in the area (on both sides) are playing a very significant role in fanning tensions and causing havoc. Again this leaves me wondering where we are headed as far as the next elections. 2007 is slowly becoming 2012 with no heads rolling whatsoever as far as politicians who orchestrated the chaos in 2007/2008. And yes, I unfortunately don’t think there is much hope as far as the Hague option (and can they just freaking open the damn envelope already).
Fourth, I’ve seen other reports of more complications being caused by Somalis from Somalia, both in terms of pouring in arms that are fueling the conflict and making the area a recruitment haven for themselves…young men being recruited from Isiolo to go and fight along with Somali insurgents in Somalia.
And amidst all this I’m wondering why I have not seen a decent story anywhere in the media stringing all these things together and raising awareness about it…if I’ve missed something, please send me a link and I’ll eat humble pie. Until then, honestly, the Kenyan media where the fricking hell are you? I’ve been able to cobble this post together from my bedroom in Johannesburg in a few hours. Did we learn nothing from 2007? Are we missing ticking time-bombs only to have editorials about “One Kenya” and “How did this Happen?”
As I write this more killings are happening on both sides…I really hope more media outlets will pick up the story and press those with the power to do something. I do know some local NGOs are working hard to resolve the conflict/address the issues but they need help in bringing attention to what’s going on.
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It’s Our Turn to Eat Reading in Kisumu
» Kenyan Pundit Organized by: International PEN Kenya Chapter
When: Saturday July 18, 2009
Time: 11am to 4pm
Where: Aga Khan Sports Centre. -
Fun for kids in Kenya
» Kenyan Pundit During my last trip to Kenya, I realized that next time around I need to do more fun stuff with the kids instead of just shuttling them around to visit one rela to the next (and the Spur and Village Market doesn’t count). Beyond trying to catch up with family, I’m also guilty of trying to sneak in quite a bit of work and catching up and not spending enough time just chilling out and enjoying being back in Nairobi/Kenya. Then there’s the problem of having grown up as a “go out and play!” / create your own entertainment estate kid, where your parents’ involvement in entertaining you was limited to nyama choma and Shade/JKA/Hillock/Small World on Sunday
So when I land in Nairobi with two kids, my imagination as far as what to do with them is limited (and I’ve found my friends there to be similarly handicapped…or to use the trusty clutch of the “club”). Anywho, I’ve promised myself that the next trip home will be relaxing and enjoyable for all of us (Sunday at Tamasha doesn’t count hehehe), and so I was very happy to come across this link today with great ideas on stuff to do with kids in Kenya including short trips around the country and picnic sites where you can explore Mau Mau caves.
On y va!
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Is Political Reform Possible in Kenya (event in DC)
» Kenyan Pundit Roundtable discussion with:
- Martha Karua, Member of Parliament, Kenya
- Paul Muite, former Member of Parliament, Kenya
- Makau W. Mutua, Dean and Distinguished Professor, University at Buffalo Law SchoolTuesday, June 16, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
B1 Conference Level Room B
Center for Strategic and International Studies
1800 K St, NW Washington DC -
Alston report discussion webcast
» Kenyan Pundit Watch the webcast here. It will be interesting to watch what exactly the govt has to say in its defense (they sent a 30-person delegation to Geneva and only have 7 mins to speak WTF!!).
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New funny Kenyan blog
» Kenyan Pundit I was saving this for a Quick Hits post, but I can’t wait.
Peculiarly Kenya - hilarious blog. Enjoy.
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Revisioning Kenya 3 - June 4th
» Kenyan Pundit PERSEVERANCE AND RADICAL BEHAVIOUR CHANGE TO FEATURE IN REVISIONING KENYA 3
Details: Thursday 4th June 6.30 to 8.30pm with drinks afterward and music by Ugomatic.
Alliance France auditorium, Loita/Monrovia StreetFeatured Speakers:
- Filmaker Judy Kibinge’s film “From the Ashes”, Revisioning Kenya, organised by Beyond Words, will provide a platform for a series of stimulating talks given by visionaries drawn from Kenya, around the continent, and abroad.- Nation Media CEO Linus Gitahi will challenge our notions of giving back to the community at the forthcoming Revisioning Kenya forum, asking Kenyans to behave very differently in order to be more nation focused.Seems Impossible?
- The world’s oldest pupil Kimani Muruge will talk to us about flouting convention, following dreams and perseverance.
- Ex Hindu turned Christian lay preacher and committed material scientist Dr Kamau Gachigi will tell us why and how technology and spirituality match, and what this may have to do with solar powered cars.
- Fred Onesmo Okidi turns to the very practical nature of providing goodwill teaching in his corner of Mathare. With no government support, the committed team at MYTO of which he is part have found ways to harness Kenyan entrepreneurial spirit to foster education and to encourage peaceful interaction in their area.
- Molo based Samuel Muhunyu, who’s school’s garden initiative has been nominated for an Ashoka Changemakers award. He plans to talk to us about the importance of reconnecting to Mother Nature.
- Jessica Colaco will present her ideas on mobile technology Kenyan style, showing how she came to be listed as one of the of top 40 businesswomen under 40.
- Activist poet Jacob Oketch, who’s debut poetry CD is due out shortly, and who is interested on the impact of local languages on the spoken word performs from his latest work
For additional information contact: info@revisioningkenya.com or +254 721 465 858
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Have Your Say…
» Kenyan Pundit In an ideal world, if Kenyan MPs were to embrace the use of technology, what kinds of things would you like to see?
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Serena Copes with Kenya Tourism Tip
» bankelele TPSEA (Serena) the only listed Kenya tourism chain had sales of Kshs. 3.2 billion ($40 million) and profit of 223 million (~$3 million) for the year ended September 2008 both down 12% and 54% respectively from 3.7 billion and 416 million in 2007.
2008 was listed as one of the worst years for Kenya tourism with some smaller hotels going under receivership, laying off staff and shutting for prolonged periods
Saved by Tanzania?: Serena was a beneficiary of diversification as the group integrated its east Africa operations in 2006. For comparison, in 2007 Kenya accounted for 2/3 of sales and profit, but in 2008, Kenya provided 59% of revenue and just 25% of profit, while Tanzania had 41% of sales (1.34 billion) and 75% of profit (167m)
Unfortunately there’s no breakdown of income of properties they manage in Mozambique, Rwanda or Uganda. Serena owns or manages 8 properties in Kenya, 6 in Tanzania, 2 in Rwanda (Kigali serena, lake kivu serena), 1 each in Uganda (kampala serena), zanibar (serena inn) and mozambique (polana serena)
Invest in tough times: At a time when some banks have sworn off new tourism projects, Serena is using the downtime in the sector to expand. Serena will invest 400 million in Jaja Limited a to develop properties in Nanyuki and Elementaita once it gets shareholder approval. Shareholders will also get the same 1.25 shilling dividend as for the year 2007
Mt. Kenya seen from Nanyuki
No beef: The Farmer’s Choice chain, a related company, supplied 26 million shillings worth of meats & sausages to Serena in 2008, down from 33 million in 2007
Mt. Kenya seen from Nanyuki
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KARA Bi-monthly talk series
» Kenyan Pundit Dear KP readers, I have neglected my blog lately. Sorry! Combination of kids, crazy travel schedule, getting back into the thick of work, training new nanny, and yes the fact that twitter is easier
I need a clone…Just came across this announcement in my in-box. Might be of interest. KARA stands for the Kenya Alliance of Residents Association - their website is quite informative.
Date: Monday, 18th May 2009
Time: 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm
Venue: Sarova Panafric Hotel (Simba Room)
Theme: Role of Civil Society in Realizing “Agenda 4”
Guests: Mr. Okong’o Omogeni, Chairman, Law Society of Kenya and Mr. Hassan Omar, Vice Chairman, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. H.E Mr. Rob Macaire, British High Commissioner to Kenya will give opening remarks.
Entry : Members and Partners (Ksh. 100); Others (Ksh. 200)
Meal : Refreshments shall be served
Moderator : Dr. PLO Lumumba, Advocate of the High Courts of Kenya and Tanzania
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Reading the Barclays Tea Leaves
» bankelele Barclays Kenya just published their 2008 annual report; what does some interesting points about the banking sector.
Barclays Peek
- Is the second largest bank in Kenya behind KCB, but still tops in profit – with Kshs 8 billion ($100 million) before tax. Has 126 billion ($1.58 billion) in deposits, loans of 108 billion ($1.35 billion) and total assets of 168.5 billion shillings. It would probably reclaim the number one status from KCB, but KCB shareholders will next month absorb the assets of S&L, their mortgage subsidiary
- Shariah Banking Barclays launched La Riba in 2008 – and in 2008 they managed to mobilize over 2 billion in new la riba deposits to stand at 3.3 billion ($41 million) at end of year, but gave out just 19 million in loans
- Customers They have a popular Business club – with over 10,000 members some of whom were flown to Dubai, China and Holland. Barclays had 930,000 customers in 2008 (2007 was 580,000) – compared to Equity Bank’s 3.3 million customers, and 60,917 shareholder 60, 917 (up from 58,945 in 07)
- Staff cutback? Employees in 2008 reduced by 16% - as group had 5,571 at December 08 compared to 6,900 in December 07. In 06 they had 2,197 (but it appears in 2008, they shed the part time staff whose numbers reduced from 4115 to 1698)
- No thanks Agriculture. Agriculture is referred to as the backbone of Kenya’s economy7, but Barclays estimate their exposure to the sector to be just 1% of loans. Private industries account for 44%, with 10% each to manufacturing and to transport & communications sectors.
- Asset finance reduced?? Assets under financial lease decreased slightly – still at 6.1 billion
- Gloabl crisis / External Impact? a 1% or decrease in interest rates would impact profit about 5%, but there’s no impact from strength/weakness of Kenya shilling (bank only does business in Kenya)
- Directors: the three directors who were appointed at previous times are up for re-election on May 15; Brown Ondengo (2003), Jane karuku (2003), and Paul Phemngorem (1998). Barclays (UK) parent, with 68.5% of the vote, will pretty much determine who will remain or leave the board. No other shareholder has more than 1%, with the next largest being Kenya’s national social security fund (NSSF) with 2%
- Cheaper to borrow overseas than the NSE: The bank received subordinated debt in the form of a tranche of NSE listed bonds of 2 billion shillings (3,078b) repayable over 5 years – at 10.36%. They also borrowed 1.25 billion from their Barclays parent; BBK in the form of a 10 year loan at just 2.39%
- Pension Funds gloomy outlook The Barclays staff pension scheme with 44% equity investments was down 13% in value (to Kshs 7 billion), compared to a gain of 6% in 07
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It’s Our Turn to Eat available as an e-book
» Kenyan Pundit From Michaela Wrong:
Harper Collins have finally come up with an e-book of “It’s Our Turn to Eat”. So Kenyans can buy the PDF file, and there’s no excuse for any further piracy or bootlegging. Please pass this around on your mailing lists and post it on your websites. We’ve tried to keep the price as low as possible - you’ll see that it is a lot cheaper than the hard copy.
We’re also hoping to make this something Kenyans who don’t own credit cards can buy on M-Pesa, but at the moment that’s proving a logistical nightmare.
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On Martha Karua
» Kenyan Pundit I’m in Nairobi for a bit and the hottest news at the moment is Karua’s resignation.
I have no doubt (and I have it on good authority) that she was indeed being frustrated in her role as Minister of Justice - apparently Gicheru has way more sway than she did with the ‘baks, however, lets be clear that this is also about positioning for the next election or any possible fallout of the coalition government. And its not about her being scared of the censure vote, she was going to win that one hands down with ODM’s support. In any event, I have to give her props for at least not complaining about the govt while drawing a fat salary and doing deals. That’s one reason why Kibaki can’t take Raila’s hissy fits seriously, he’s like “dude, can we revisit the maize and your son’s scandals first?”
I had the opportunity to chat with Karua one on one when I was in Geneva last week (I actually had a post on that pending oh well). I have to say that I was impressed with her despite myself and my preconceptions of her. She is brilliant, articulate, on point, ambitious and a straight shooter. Unlike most politicians I’ve met who thrive in trivialities when I tried to talk to them, she was engaging and seemed to enjoy the fact that I wasn’t brown-nosing her. Do I disagree with a lot of things she has said and done? Hell yes (and I’m not like totally gaga about her). But shock on me, I kinda liked her.
[An aside, has she ever been linked to a corruption scandal?]
One of the things we discussed was the issue of old fogies dominating Kenyan politics. I argued that this was one of the biggest problems with Kenyan politics. Karua shot back that this Parliament was the youngest we have ever had in Kenya, but the most corrupt by far with some of the young MPs leading the way (in her words the biggest auction house in Africa). In her view, the current Parliament was even worse then when she entered into a 1992 Parliament full of octogenarians and Moi hands. She also felt that everybody (including civil society) should drop their partisan issues, come together and push for reforms and then guys can go their merry way to fight it out for the next elections. We then discussed her website (which had been hacked a while back), mzalendo, facebook and her online strategy in general - she admitted she was clueless when it came to using the internet to campaign but that she was very aware that it was a powerful medium and that she needed to be on point.
I wish her well in her run for office, like her or not, she has the potential to be a gamechanger.
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Workshop on the Truth Commission
» Kenyan Pundit I am currently attending a workshop on lessons Kenya can learn from the South African Truth and Reconciliation process. I’m here wearing my concerned Kenyan citizen hat (otherwise my Saturday mornings are precious family time) and my Ushahidi hat…focusing mainly on the process of documentation and on how we can help ensure that information collected through the process is easily accessible. The following are quick notes I’m taking as the workshop proceeds:
- Civil society needs to start simplifying the process of Agenda 4 and of the TRJC to the ordinary mwananchi e.g. explaining the open forums and how they would work to the people, articulating the agenda to the people.
-There is a big danger that Kenyans (and not the govt) are in the its time to move on mode, growing sense that Kenyans feel agenda 4 items are pointless, the crisis is over and Annan needs to butt out. If this sentiment was from govt, that’s expected but from citizens that’s a big problem.
- Agenda 4 items really depend on a new constitution (whether we will have one is another question altogether)
- Active engagement with the media is required as the process unfolds.
- One needs to remember that the TJRC was part of a political settlement so politicians / partisan interests are necessarily part of the process and have to be managed.
- Important to remember that once the work has started, it must be finished otherwise the work of the TRC would have failed. -
Update 4 from Geneva- Waki Speaks
» Kenyan Pundit 
[I really should have been done now, but my in box is a mess, fired the nanny on my return and dealing with a semi-sick Gabi...did I say I have 10,000 things on my plate? I need a clone. STAT!]
The Geneva conference marked the first time that Waki has spoken publicly on the CIPEV (Waki) report. He was understandably measured, given the controversy surrounding his report - or as he corrected us - the Commission’s report. He reminded the audience that many recommendations were made by the Commission beyond the local tribunal that could be acted upon NOW and was disappointed that these are being ignorede.g.
- recommendations on issues around IDPs
- recommendations on addressing the sexual and gender based violence
- recommendations on police reformHe noted that the fact that they recommended a local tribunal that by-passed the criminal justice system, does not mean that the Commission had zero confidence in the judiciary as some claim…they just felt that a tribunal would be the most expedient way to deliver justice.
He said that they were deliberately bold as a Commission because they wanted to be unlike other Commissions whose recommedations disappeared into thin air. He also said that they had a responsiblity to deliver because they had reassured Kenyans who were reluctant to testify before them that something would come out of the Commission.
[A bit of goss - the Commission's secretary, George Kegoro, did an outstanding job as far as marshalling the testimony and keeping things on track]. -
Update 3 from Geneva Conference
» Kenyan Pundit [Back home in Joburg, and playing catch-up]
Orengo speaks:
People must remember that the accord was a ceasefire document.
- At the time the State and its organs were unable to control the situation and were also engaged in the violence. The lack of confidence in the judiciary also eliminated it was an option.
- The problem has always been the State and its nature and this still remains the same.
- They tackled the composition of Cabinet but not of government and this is problematic.
- Issue of corruption / impunity the biggest challenge
- The principles are too far removed from the process
- He urged the media to take advantage of a more open parliament to really highlight the performance/non-performance of MPsSally Kosgei made a brief / interesting comment on how they - a group of 6 individuals including head of National Intelligence, Army Chief - managed the transition in 2002. Apparently they had been working on Moi to prepare him psychologically to hand over power since October. In her view Kibaki/PNU were never prepared to leave no matter what the results were and the “kitchen” Cabinet reinforced this.
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Update 2 from Annan conference in Geneva
» Kenyan Pundit Following points were raised about the ICC:
- It takes long - Cambodia process started way back in 2002, that’s six years.
- The court can only handle a few perpetrators so it needs to be reserved for the big fry…what happens to middle/lower level guys?
- For many reasons (including above) it is important not to lose sight of the national process…the ICC will always be there.
- Someone made the point that the ICC process will be too detached from the average Kenya, importance of process being local with cameras in court etc. should not be underestimated.
- Someone from the ICC should speak to Kenyans about the process, they don’t want to hear from pundits (hehehe).
-Someone suggested that they should announce investigations just to make the threat real.
- Annan thinks its critical for justice to be done.
- There should be a sense of balance - not just about Eldoret, but also Kisumu, Nakuru, Naivasha, Mombasa - one side should not feel victimized.
What the ICC is saying:
- They are monitoring Kenya, O’Campo has a special adviser- Most effective as a stick e.g. in Columbia where the threat has been used to push for local prosecutions (takes time though)
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Update 1 from Geneva - KNDR (Annan) Conference
» Kenyan Pundit I’m tired and sleepy, but the show must go on.
I arrived in Geneva for the Annan conference on Kenya this morning and haven’t had a chance to rest…too much going on.
I’ve been invited specifically because of my role as a blogger during the post election violence - which is huge - because it means that the Kenyan blogging scene is being taken seriously as an area of influence and a source of information (yeah for bloggers!). Unfortunately, the Chatham House Rules apply to most of the sessions, so I can’t be too detailed.
I’m sure there will still be lots to report about given my peskiness. So what’s happened so far..
- Shared a cab ride with Judge Kriegler from the Kriegler Commission. Cab ride chit chat led to breakfast. Unfortunately, the Judge was tight as a clam…he must have sensed my blogging radar…hehehe. I will say he seemed super-aware of his role as a foreigner when he did his work and maybe that’s why he stopped short of doing his job kabisa, unlike Waki. Anyway, he was quite friendly, a bit condescending, and apparently very unpopular with Kenyan civil society .
- At breakfast, sighted Karua, Wangari Maathai and Wako having breakfast together. Talk about strange bedfellows.
- Ran into a number of civil society friends including Maina Kiai, who had interesting stories about interviewing for the IEC gig…his interview lasted all of six minutes and he apparently was told by a source that he’d never get the gig because he had pissed on Kikuyus while he was at KNCHR. Frontrunner is Kaparo. Seeing the civil society guys lead to me being invited to sit in on a meeting with Annan and civil society reps to hear their views on where things are one year later.
- General prognosis, things are grim. Political space is diminishing, ethnic based militias are rearming (this time with AK-47s not machetes), the people are angry and disillusioned. Several references to Madagascar and the fact that the fire next time will be class based and not ethnic based.
- Potential flashpoints: census later this year; military given what happened in Molo/El Wak can’t be presumed to be professional any more…also suspension of the Tonje rules is formenting disquiet; a police force that’s running amok.
- There’s is a sense that the political class is numb, yet there can be no movement without them because they still hold enormous sway in Kenya e.g. forests are burning on the instructions of politicians; youth in Rift Valley were ready to cause havoc if the Ruto censure had gone down.
- Quote of the morning: “Kenya does not need reform, it needs an overhaul.”
OK, gotta run and clean up and get ready for the afternoon session…next post will be on the ICC option.
Comments open for the duration of the conference…please keep it civil!
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Public Forum on Contemporary Nairobi
» Kenyan Pundit Date: 27 March 2009
Venue: 680
Time: 9:00 - 4:00 (lunch served) -
More shocking evidence of police death squads
» Kenyan Pundit Bernard Kiirinya was a former driver with the Special Crimes Unit of the Kenya Police. He came forward with evidence of extra-judicial killings to the Kenya National Human Rights Commission. His act of whistle blowing cost him his life. Let us hope it was not in vain (although this is Kenya, where heroism is pointless).
Please read his full disturbing statement here.
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New reports of police harassment of activists
» Kenyan Pundit Below is a report I have just read by a Bunge la Mwananchi activist. We have been urging the activists who are being harassed to document their experiences as best as they can. I have promised to make sure that what is going on in Kenya right now gets a wider audience. The report is disturbing to say the very least, not just because it shows you just how paranoid and oppressive this government is becoming, but also because it gives some insight into how the extra-judicial killings that have been in the news start off and how easy it is to be “disappeared” if you don’t have good contacts and with a Mungiki label slapped on you. Please note that it quite lengthy and very unedited.
By Gacheche Gachiki
Dear Comrades, Friends and Allies.
We take this opportunity to thank you all for your great concern and follows-ups to our illegal arrests and detention .
Yesterday morning at 9.00 am I had just been invited by my friend Ibra…as we call him for a cup of coffee in Kiamaiko , within few minutes we were joined by Ruth mumbi of Kiamaiko young women resource centre , She had a article of association for their small organisation and objectives that she needed me to read before they register , In kimaiko the biggest goat market in Nairobi there is a abundant of life with many people coming to buy goats , A friend of mine who I had helped to follow a case of his brother of extra judicial killing joined us , He had a apron coat that is uniform for workers in the slaughter houses, he informed me he had started a small joint business inside one slaughter house with four goats I encouraged him for that ,We were still with Mumbi taking coffee My comrade Ibrahim paid for the coffee and he left to collect his shoes, Another friend came his Nick name Sapare , He is great supporter of Bunge La Mwananchi debates mostly conducted at Kwa Rasta, café with a Mug of tea a place mostly Visited by members of Bunge la Mwananchi either to take a cheap meal of Madodochapati (beans served with chapatti) for Ksh30 or mug of tea that goes for ksh 5 bob last time that we were visitors to kwa Rasta was last Sunday with Keli , Mulialia odipo and Mumbi as we were visiting ongaza njia community centre in the same area for our community organizing activities and we engaged in a good debates and discussion that we had plans to improve the the Bunge La mwananchi debates in an open space within the slums , It is my friend Sapare. Who invited me in Kwa Rasta Where mostly I spend by early Sunday Morning reading the articles in Sunday Nation.
I was the first to enter as I left Sapare with Mumbi, where we were taking coffee, the two police officer were seated down like other customers, I looked for a place to seat and I ordered for a mug of tea before one officer who gave in a space for me to seat at this time I didn’t know him .Before he called the other two officers outside..in the next I minutes that place looked like hell the plastic jugs that are used to serve water to customers without any resist of arrests or provocation both water and breakings jugs were breakings in our heads with beatings and shouts of orders for us to knell down under the tables the experience we went through was very horrible and indeed cruel and I expected death to surprises as any time in that moment before the journey through Kimaiko , Ghetto slum , Huruma Mathare North Via Nairobi river bank, With beatings and torture and abuses and demands of money to buy our freedom Ksh 200,000,, The movement of young people from this informal settlement, 20 in number and those who were arrested along the route was in form of a human train. Handcuffed with Chains that have trade mark HIATTS MADE IN ENGLAND, along the route we were buddle together in a makeshift kiosk where, near St Martin Deplores church, that border Nairobi River and Mathare North Estate, to wait for any relative who might have some money to buy our freedom from the human chain train
AS we negotiated the Nairobi river banks behind Madoya slum near the river where there are big bushes and small well cultivated farms of Vegetable. We were order to stop for inspections of any illegal substance like bhang, Snuff, tobacco, or mobile phone without a receipt,
This inspection is what become our hope when it came to my turn, my Nokia 5000 cell phone was taken away and wallent Which they saw Business cards of Hon Farah Maalim , Paul Muite And Dr. willy Mutunga, Firoze Manji and Calvin Mbugua of Ongaza njia Community centre.
After Scrolling, my phone book immediately it was switched off, and they beckoned each other for a small meeting behind a concrete slab in the river bank.
After coming back to the scene of our inspection, I was separated from 12 members who we were arrested together at Kwa Rasta Café in Kiamaiko. And this time I was chained together with one young man his name Charles Macharia , who was bleeding all over his face and at first time I received an individual threat of death if I don’t cooperate to be released alone, and leave the others because of Contacts in my phone book and the business cards.But the other eleven young people demaded that I was arrested together with them and no way I can be separated from them unless death , With their demands they received serious beatings but at the end we were separated. Near a small bridge that unite Madoya slum and Mathare.
From that point my comrade was Charles Macharia and another young man who was arrested in Madoya slum him his hands were tied with cooper wires after the HIATTS chains became scarce, Macharia who we started our journey together at Kwa Rasta had received serious beating his crime is that he keep on saying he will report his matter to Human rights people about his many illegal arrests, and beatings on his hand he had a cash bail bond issued by Makadara law courts of Ksh 5000. And he could not accept to back to another police station. In his hands he had bag carrying Topex bleach detergent and Vasseline. That he hawk in small shop in Huruma Kiamaiko mostly manufactured in Light industries, along Juja road that Border Huruma and Kariobangi Noth estate
The bag was a bit heavy so I had to assist him while he was wiping blood on his face his plea to wash his blood soaked face in the Nairobi River as it was drying on his face were answered with more beatings…and more humiliation, He did request me we escape with the handcuffs but I sensed danger on that suggestion., he had plan on how to cut the England made chains in the slum called Ghetto.
From this the Bridge that join Madoya slum Mathare North , Myself and Charles Macharia and the young man tied with copper wire we walked together cursing the system and the police who had arrested as in silent…as we were taken to another direction by one police officer.
The fate of other eleven arrested kwa Rasta remained unknown to me but near the stage of route No 29/30 for Mathare north we were packed in another makeshift kiosk, for more observation, whether we can accept to buy our freedom, after one hour the next group that was separated from as was escorted to the new holding base., together with two women an and another young man by more ruthless officers.
From here Ruth mumbi using contacts of the women who was arrested trying to follow his sons she was able to trace our where about and contacted Keli Muysoka of Bunge la Mwanachi , Who then contacted Calvin and of Ongaza njia community and Hon . Paul muite and at 2pm the police could not stay longer with us in the Bush they had to take us to the nearest police station a number of people from huruma community and members of Bunge La Mwanachi had already reached at Muthaiga police station and they had started to demands our production to the nearest legal police station.live or dead.
At Muthaiga police station we were taken there by a private vechicle a Nissan from Mathare North there was more beatings again to confess we are members of Mungiki and at that time of arrests were conducting oaths, our belts shoes and valuables, were booked and were put in custody.
At around 4 pm we were called again for our details to be taken, within few minutes at Divisional criminal investigations office, is when Paul muite arrived and together with Members of Bunge La Mwanachi Geroge Nyongesa Fwaba and Calvin Mbugua with local media.
Hon. Paul Muite did request for our release with police bond, and we report to Muthaiga police station tomorrow at on 24/02/09 8 am our bonds that we are compelled to report to Muthaiga police station under section 22 of the police act Cap84. For the inspector of police to make inquiries into an alleged offence of being members of outlawed sect (Mungiki). As serious tag for exte-judicial execution…at this hour.
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Quick Hits
» Kenyan Pundit - Wherecamp Africa being held in Nairobi on April 4th.
- Kenyan religious leaders get their act together and tell it like it is. This is not an insignificant move, given how much influence religion/ religious leaders carry in Kenyan society. One only wishes they (the leaders) could have shown such sense in the run-up to the election.
- My new favorite Kenyan blogger.
- A report by American University on Public media 2.0 -
The Kenya I Cannot Stand
» Kenyan Pundit Unedited note from Philo, one of the activists arrested yesterday.
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Action alert update
» Kenyan Pundit Colleagues eventually traced the three Kenyan civil society activists arrested and beaten outside Parliament buildings yesterday after a nighttime search.
Philo Ikonya was released from Gigiri Police Station last night at
about 11 pm to appear in court this morning. Fwamba N.C Fwamba spent the night in custody at Gigiri Police Station,
while Patrick Kamotho was held overnight at the Central Police
Station. All three were beaten up while in custody.They were charged this morning at the Chief Magistrates Court
(High Court buildings Nairobi), Thursday February 19th 2009, with taking part in an unlawful assembly. The court released them of a cash bail of Ksh Ten Thousand each, which their colleagues are making arrangements to pay to facilitate their release. -
Action alert! Press for activists release
» Kenyan Pundit KP readers, please lend your support to these brave souls who are doing the hard and important work that needs to be done to change Kenya. We might not all be able to march in the streets in protest of the numerous scandals bedeviling the country, so lets take action in other ways.
Note: The importance of logging a critical volume of messages, through multiple channels, especially internationally, cannot be underestimated. They may not result in immediate release, but they will influence the response to the habeas corpus filing tomorrow
morning. And may make all the difference to the level of physical abuse that Philo, Fwamba and Patrick suffer - or are saved from - at the hands of the police while in custody.
WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW(1) Send a text message NOW, to Kenya’s President, Prime Minister, and Attorney General. Use the one below, or craft your own.
Mr. Kibaki / Mr. Odinga - we hold u accountable 4 police violence and illegal arrests against Philo Ikonya n other civil society activists. Release them NOW and fire Police Commissioner Ali.To President Mwai Kibaki (via his spokesperson, Alfred Mutua):
Cellphone number + 254 721 240 443To Prime Minister Raila Odinga
Cellphone + 254 733 620 736Attorney General:
Amos Wako + 254 722 772 4532) Send an email
To President Mwai Kibaki
presid…@statehousekenya.go.keTo Prime Minister Raila Odinga
railaodi…@yahoo.comSuggested Message:
Mr Kibaki / Mr. Odinga, I urge you to act immediately to release Philo Ikonya, Fwamba Chrispus, and Patrick Kamotho from illegal police custody. Police Commissioner Ali must be fired for presiding over
escalating police violations of civil and human rights in Kenya.Signed: Name, Organization / Affiliation (if any), City, Country
3) If you are a Kenyan repeat steps 1) and 2) with your own MP andother parliamentarians. Contact details for Kenyan MPs at Mzalendo.
4) If you live outside Kenya, repeat steps 1) and 2), directing the texts and emails to the Kenyan Ambassador or High Commissioner in your
country. Contact details on this link:5) If you are a foreign national living in Kenya, repeat steps 1) and 2) with the Ambassador or High Commissioner of your country in Kenya.
6) Copy to the Feedback Form on the site of the Kenyan Police Force: http://www.kenyapolice.go.ke/contactus.asp
7) Copy to Kofi Annan, in his capacity as the head of the Kenya
National Dialogue and Reconciliation Process, through his spokesman: Nasser Ega-Musa Nasser.Ega-M…@unon.org -
Activists arrested outside parliament
» Kenyan Pundit Philo Ikonya, Fwamba FC Fwamba, and Patrick Kamotho have been beaten and arrested by police while demonstrating against lack of unga, and corruption in government at Parliament Buildings. The protests were planned to coincide with Ruto’s censure motion scheduled for today. Philo Ikonya and Fwamba FC Fwamba are currently being held at Central Police Station. The whereabouts of Patrick Kamotho are still unknown.
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Report on implementation of coalition govt
» Kenyan Pundit A report prepared by South Consulting on the implementation of the agreements from the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR) is now available on the KNDR website.
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6:40
On Femmes
» Kenya Imagine Rachel Gichinga is exasperated by the predictability of the Q&A at The Kenya We Want conference. -
Institutionalism and its Limits
» Kenya Imagine Daniel Waweru argues that institutions alone will not save us. -
The Revolution in Middle Age
» Kenya Imagine Will there be a revolution? While the scars of tribalism and the post-election violence persist, it is doubtful that there could ever be a collective repudiation of the current state of affairs.
Stephanie mulls over the Iranian revolution, and draws some lessons for Kenya.
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LA Times on the late Father Kaiser
» Kenyan Pundit While the absurdity of a former dictator (Moi) and two corrupt incompetents (Raila & Kibaki) helping us figure out the “Kenya We Want” in an expensive conference sinks in, lets take a moment to remind ourselves just how bad things were during the Moi years (hat tip DW!).
EDIT: Part 3 of the series is here.
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Quick Hits: Feb 5
» Kenyan Pundit - For those who took pictures with the ubiquitous Obama cutout, notice his hands were white?
- Interesting NYTimes look at Google’s venture into internet infrastructure in Kenya/Africa.
- Google local search for Nairobi launched.
- Macharia Gaitho’s op-ed on the Molo tragedy is a MUST read. Money quote: Whether super-rich or dirt-poor, Kenyans will forever be in scramble to get something for nothing…
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Kenyan activists in action
» Kenyan Pundit In a few days maybe I’ll be able to stop frothing at the mouth at the barrage of terrible headlines coming from Kenya.
Until then, something positive.
I constantly complain about the penchant for Kenyans to be permanently outraged about the state of their affairs, but then be unable to act upon their outrage with persistence and with a determination to change things and then leave it to “those people” to do the dirty work of protesting for them (the very same “those people” who we revile for being easily fooled by politicians) while they pray for things to get back to “normal.”
The folks at Bunge la Mwananchi are different. They are persistent, dogged, and speak to the core issues that the average Kenyan cares about, often with minimal resources and with constant harassment from the government.
I hope that they will one day see the fruit of their labours, and that the rest of us take a cue for them and ask ourselves what we are doing to improve the status quo of our country.
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Cannibalistic Nation
» Kenyan Pundit A nation of cannibals.
That is what we have become.
Experts at finishing ours and our own.
While immortalizing Obama on the other hand.
Although if Obama’s life path would have led him to Kenya, we would have finished him too.
Like we did his father.These thoughts are inspired by the tragic death of Dr. Muiruri. Also known as Ngethu Star . A young man who had transformed his life, had worked hard to excel, made the “jump” as I often ask people to do, and was just about to enjoy the fruits of his labour.
It’s true that the he is just one of the many senseless lives that are lost in Kenya (especially of young men) on a daily basis. But his story has resonated so deeply with me and many others. Why? Maybe because I’ve done that celebratory jaunt back home , and can picture me or someone I’m with getting into a silly fight at the heng and just like that it’s over.
A confession that’s relevant.
The longest I’ve ever been away from Kenya is two years and three months. It was painful. I was notorious for finding ways to go back home right from when I left (and have the grant applications to prove it!). I’ve worked in Nairobi every year since 1998, with the exception of that long stay.
So why did I stay away for so long? Because, after I found out I’d been accepted to HLS I had this morbid fear that if I went home something bad would happen to me. Specifically, some random tragic “killed by a speeding matatu while she was on the verge of going to Harvard Law” type storo. Of course, remaining in the U.S. did guarantee my mortality but you could not convince me to go home until I at least experienced a year at HLS…so great was my fear of being cannibalized by my country. It all sounds a bit silly in retrospect, but I was determined to do what I could to ensure that a could at least taste the fruits of my hard work…and I suspect it’s a fear shared by many in the diaspora (at least we have the luxury of staying away).
Anyway, I rambling now so I’ll let the words of someone more eloquent that I am convey my thoughts.
By JUDY KIBINGE
THE SHOOTING DOWN OF A RISING STARL
ife has never been as cheap in Kenya as it is now.
On Friday September 12th 2008, James Muiruri Nganga wrote the following words in his blog:“With my thesis already submitted and in the hands of my examiners, I can feel that I deserve more from life. Therefore, destined for great heights and bigger things, I am now knocking on the doors of success and satisfaction . The world is now mine.”
Barely four months later, on Saturday morning, a car carrying police officers followed 29 year old Dr. James Muiruri Nganga headed home from a long night out in Crooked Q, a club in Westlands. I wonder what he and his brother might have been talking about as they headed home and as the sunlight hit their faces. Maybe they were wondering about the argument that had had them all thrown out of the club was all about. Some guy had picked a fight with James over a woman and the bouncers sensing trouble had thrown them all out. Or maybe, as the sun rose over the city, warming them, he felt just as described in his blog on November 4th 2008:
“Since being awarded the doctorate, every moment has felt like a quiet afternoon with the fresh air forming some summer saxophone note, rising and falling on a warm breeze. With jewels in my heart, it is heaven here and the light that glows inside my heart feels like the salvation that will hopefully free my soul and brighten many others.”
The drunken police inspector might have been the furthest thing from James mind as a moved to block the one James rode in. A few heated words were exchanged before the trigger happy policemen whipped out his gun, firing bullets into his head, shoulder and heart – a further two through his mouth for good measure after he collapsed onto the tarmac. Their vicious , drunken mission accomplished, the police officers sped off to report the killing of a “a mungiki bank robber” at Buru Buru police station. According to the Daily Nation, his father, Former Gatundu North MP, one of the first to arrive at MP Shah Hospital to receive the news was ” devastated by the death of his second-born son and said: “He was my life and my everything.”"
Dr. James Muiruri Nganga isn’t the first to die this way. He isn’t the first hope of the family to be cut down in a hail of police bullets. His father, harsh as this may sound, is one of maybe even hundreds right now lamenting that their child, their life, their everything was slain.
If the stories I have heard in recent times are anything to go by, this extrajudicial killing of young men is a national crisis. James may well be one of hundreds of young men who have been killed by police all over the country in recent times. In every slum and every lower income neighborhood in this city, many youth claim – should you ask - that their peers have being slain by police every day in unprecedented numbers,. Its not uncommon for a young man from the slums to tell you that all his friends are dead. If you don’t believe me, you go ask yourself. Pick a youth, any youth in Kibera, Mathare, Huruma… and ask him what he believes the biggest cause of death for young men in the slums today is, and you’ll hear it for yourselves, with your own ears. And, like James, these kids are being classified in death as criminals or mungiki’s– or both. We have to be honest with ourselves and ask: if James’ father wasn’t an ex MP, or if he wasn’t a brilliant young man with a PhD before 30 and with his whole life ahead of him, would be forgotten just as the hundreds of other bullet riddled corpses that precede him have been?
In December 2008, just a month or two after James took his PhD Viva across the ocean in Sheffield, unaware that all his dreams were soon to end, I was speaking to a Nderitu, a 32 year old youth leader in MYSA, Mathare Youth Soccer Association, whose membership extends to 18,000 youth across all of Nairobis slums. Of all his concerns about all the terrible things going on in Mathare - the drugs, the disease, the unemployment – Nderitus greatest worry was what he called the loss of a generation, and he expressed this fear with clarity and anger:
“saa hi kukienda mathare mi huona watu wanafanya campaign za Aids mingi sana but watu wa young wana die karibu kila day juu ya kushootiwa saa nashindwa tunafaa tuonge juu ya Aids ama tuongee juu ya watu kushootiwa ? maybe saa hii haituaffect lakini niko sure another ten years ndio watu wata realize weeh,kuna generation iljkikuwa wiped out.” (”if you go to Mathare right now, you’ll see people doing AIDS campaigns, but young people are dying almost everyday, being shot by the police, and I wonder, should we be talking about HIV while people are being shot? Maybe at this moment we aren’t affected, but I’m sure that in another 10 years, people will realize a whole generation was wiped out”.)
It’s true: There’s a killing spree going on. And we can only hope that James’ death will do something to stem the tide. At the top of his eloquent, passionate , honest, highly intelligent and expressive blog NGETHU STAR (http://ngethustar.blogspot.com/ ) – he being the star friom Ngethu Village - he writes: NG’ETHU STAR: From that Destined Child beneath the Stars that light the African Village along the valleys of River Chania, to the Road to Doctorate and Beyond the eagle’s heights…
Today, I feel compelled to complete that header for him as the three dots he placed after the sentence seem to demand the completion of the premature obituary he unknowingly penned. I hope he would approve of it:
NG’ETHU STAR: From that Destined Child beneath the Stars that light the African Village along the valleys of River Chania, to the Road to Doctorate and Beyond the eagle’s heights… came the brutal slaying of a dream, bringing Ngethu Star spiraling back down to earth to die in a pool of his own blood, slain by those who swore to protect him in the country he loved so much. But through his death, he has allowed others to rise and soar to eagles heights, to be saved. To live. Indeed this brilliant young man shed his blood so that others like him may live on. -
Writing Queer Kenya
» Kenyan Pundit On behalf of:
Editors: Keguro Macharia and Angus Parkinson
We lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals, in a word, queers, have had the distinct un-pleasure of being told we don’t exist—in official government statements, historical documents, and contemporary statements. Well, we do.
We want Kenyan stories by Kenya-based and Kenya-born queers. About everything. We want writing about the dailyness of our lives, the good, the bad, the weird, the indifferent. If you have lived it, we want to hear about it. We especially want to reach beyond Nairobi, Mombasa, and other cities to all corners of the country. And we know the rest of Kenya, Africa, and the world wants to hear these stories as well.
Formats
We have three distinct formats. Choose what appeals to you.
1. Interviews: Tell us your story. Get in touch with us and we’ll arrange an interview. We value your time and your confidentiality. Not sure you want to meet us directly? We have phones and email and all manner of ways to make this happen.
2. Letters to Kenya: Write (or unearth) a 500-1,000-word letter. To whom? Parents, pastors, the government, best friends, former friends, present lovers, former lovers, the person you really want to tune. Get personal, get intimate. Say what you really want to say!
3. Personal narratives: Write (or unearth) a 2,500-3,000-word narrative about the dailyness of being queer. The high points, low points, the endless plateaus, the quick glances, indrawn breaths of desire, domestic thrills, sexual boredom, beginnings and endings. If you write it, we’ll consider it.All submissions should be typed, double-spaced, and submitted electronically to queerkenya@gmail.com. If you can’t type, don’t want to, or can’t get hold of an email program that functions, get in touch with us. We can help.
How You Can Contribute
1. Get the word out. Convince your friends with hidden manuscripts or stories that must be shared to un-closet them.
2. Send us encouraging emails. We need your good wishes, your fabulously good wishes.
3. Volunteer time! We need all the help we can get.
4. Take ownership. We’re editing, sure, but these are our collective stories.Important Dates
April 30, 2009: Deadline to Receive Submissions
June 30, 2009: Selected Contributors Contacted
Publication: December 2009.Questions? We’re glad to answer. Please contact us at queerkenya@gmail.com
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Plane moment: Mostly KQ
» bankelele New KQ plane
After a slight delay here's the new KQ 737-800 5Y-KYE
Kenya Airways gets another 737-800 from Boeing tomorrow. Bold expansion at a difficult time for many airlines, and KQ is still increasing routes and frequencies but can reduced fuel prices be passed on to passengers?
Regional Routes
Air Tanzania was suspended from flights and offered a $2 million bailout by the government only?
Zambian Airways suspended flight without notice citing high fuel costs.
Virgin Nigeria suspended flights to London and South Africa.
Delta is US is expanding routes in Africa later this year (e.g. Nairobi in June) and so South African Airways will start a nonstop service from New York to Johannesburg in May that leaves earlier and allows for seamless connections on to other African destinations
Flight of Woe
On a recent local flight, the aircraft was found to have puncture at a mid-way stop
So the airline attempted to move the passengers to a more refined vehicle
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Co-Op IPO Aftermath
» bankelele A formal statement is out today after Monday's press conference where the bank’s management revealed that through their 2008 IPO, Co-op Bank had raised Kshs. 5.4 billion (~$77 million) but short of a revised target of Kshs 6.7 billion as 66,576 shareholders bought 546 million shares. The Business Dailyreports the shares will be allocated 60% to individual investors (340.5 million shares) , 30% to institutions (171 m shares ) and staff will get 9% (52.6 m shares)
Capital raising: the offer was not underwritten (by D&B winner - best lead transaction advisor and best investment bank), but despite the shortfall, what was raised should be enough for a few years. Co-op’s capital adequacy goes from 9% to about 18%, which is not bad [10 billion would have taken to this to 22%]
Other banks that have been reported to have engaged in recent private capital raising include K-Rep and Southern Credit while others who may need to tap shareholders next year could Chase, CBA, CFC Stanbic and even KCB (for the third time in five years?)
Glass Half Full: Though Co-op had initially set out to raise Kshs 10 billion, their listing came at a tough time and was not received as enthusiastically as past IPO’s. Still it had some positives but came in a tough market before the target was revised down, but has some positives
- For the bank: 66,000 shareholders is a manageable register , and since they did a lot of the placement and receiving work in house, the IPO was not as costly as others (budgeted at Kshs. 248 million)
- For new shareholders: no refunds to queue for, and for once a 100% allocation
- For other serious investors, a brief return to sanity as the IPO speculators with their borrowed funds kept away – Co-op was the fall guy that injected some reality back into IPO process and share investments.
2009 IPO’s: Next year could see the entry of Nakumatt supermarkets, bread maker a DPL and others from the private sector.
From the public sector (Government side) comes a series of planned privatizations a few of which could be IPO candidates to assist the Government in fund-raising:
Top of my my wish list is Kenya Pipeline, whose much improved governance saw a consortium of banks line up this month to offer the company funds for expansion (a few years ago KPC was using dubious financial intermediaries) and Kenya Wine Agencies. In addition, more shares of Kengen East African Portland Cement Company and National Bank will be sold to the public.
Other non-IPO candidates will be targeted at strategic partners [for Kenya Ports Authority- and TEAMS (submarine cable)] while private investors may be sought to invest in the sugar companies [Chemelil, Sony, Nzoia, Miwani, Muhoroni] hotels of Kenya Tourism Development Corporation, banks [Consolidated Bank, Development Bank of Kenya] and food processors [Kenya Meat Commission, New Kenya Co-operative Creameries]
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Jamhuri Day is meaningless: Kenyans are not yet free
» Kenya Imagine In 1888 the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA) was granted a royal charter to administer and commercially exploit British territory in East Africa on behalf of the British monarch. The company was eventually responsible for managing the production and exportation of raw materials; (a substantial chunk of) its sphere of influence was renamed the Kenya Protectorate in 1895, and Kenya Colony in 1920. The construction of the Kenya-Uganda Railway, to facilitate the trade that would turn Kenya into a paying colony, had followed the cession of the IBEA's mandate to the Foreign Office; the declaration of the protectorate over Kenya was followed, in turn, by the systematic alienation of large tracts of land.
Another article from kI on the history of Kenya. -
Essential Reading: Kenya Communications Amendment Bill
» Kenya Imagine
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Animation seminar at Sarit - Dec 6th
» Kenyan Pundit This looks like it will be a very interesting event. The organizers hope to break the myths surrounding animation in Kenya, such as it’s a “foreign art” and that you need big expensive computers to do it well. The event is expected to be “an amazing opportunity for Kenyan design geeks and animation enthusiasts to meet up, share ideas and plot on how to take over the worldwith our own animation content starting 2009!”
See the website for registration details and more information. Kudos to the Kenya Film Commission for sponsoring this.
If anyone reading this attends, please come back and report on how it went…
AOB: For more on the current state of animation in Africa, see this article.
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Unga AGM 2008
» bankelele The company which was founded in December 1908 by Lord Delamere to mill his wheat harvest, is now a century old. It is celebrating its fourth straight years of profits on the back of improved sales Kshs. 9.5 billion (~$125 million) and profits of Kshs. 564 million (~$7.5 million). The Chairman commented on the improvement from the time a few years back when they used to record losses and had their financial accounts qualified by the auditors.
slow registration
Excerpts: missed a few minutes of the meeting as the registration was really slow - just two ladies, with no computer. They had to write every shareholder name down, and have them sign, but without verification of their legitimacy
Bonus: The company offering a (1) bonus share for each five (5) held to reward shareholders since the board had opted not to pay a cash dividend this year.
Company structure: The Seaboard Corporation is a management company and shareholder that contributed to the turnaround. However their presence is a sore point with some shareholders unhappy that while they have no divined, Seaboard gets paid a minimum of Kshs. 12 million a year that will escalate as the company gets more profitable. Their agreement has also been extended by the directors for another five years and there was also a question on the loans owed to the company that could be called in at any time - an unlikely scenario according to the board
- Shareholders also asked on the relationship between Nampak (a partner company) and Bulpack which was a joint venture between Nampak and Unga to make bags. The dividend paid that appears in the accounts was paid to Unga from Bulpak, and not by Unga.
(No) Dividend: Though this was the fourth year of profits, the board said it still needed to retain cash for plant & machinery replacement and to also strengthen the balance sheet.
No Maize in Kenya: Later the Unga MD Nicholas Hutchinson gave a talk on the current maize shortage and stated that the company (Unga) had ran out of maize (corn) stock floor eight days ago. He said there is not enough maize in the country, and the late decision by the Government to import maize, means it will trickle to the markets slowly – by mid December. The Cabinet may release more to millers, but the Government also wants to build up grain reserves and assist displaced people (flood, post-election violence victims)
The maize harvest this year was bad - Unga is offering Kshs. 2,500 per and 2,250 in Nairobi and Eldoret respectively but are still not able to get enough maize so they are operating about 35 – 40% which may show in the coming results
For consumers faced with a high retail price (just under Kshs. 100 for a 2kg pack, it’s a good time for farmers, but bad for consumers (dangerous?) - as prices may not drop significantly even after the supply. He said that the Government will be importing maize to Nairobi at Kshs. 2,500 if no duty is paid and that it must speculative ventures – which has affected supply of maize. Also, next year's maize harvest could be just as bad.
Receivables: are much higher than the year before. Management responded that its from their increased business. They had in fact reduced the number of customers i.e. 55 key wholesalers that they deal (down from 140) with and gave them incentives to pay cash or open bank guarantees.
Outlook: - Asked about market share, management said it was growing. They focus on urban markets and supermarkets, and don't emphasize rural sales as entrepreneurs can flour mill and sell it cheaper than Unga branded products.
- Other subsidiaries: are performing well like the Uganda one and animal feed division - Unga had anticipated a maize shortage so had started to substitute maize with wheat in their animal feed. Wheat subsidiary is good though the current good prices may fall next year
Shareholder gift
Goodies: Each shareholder present got a voucher for a bale of baking flour. Which retails at about Kshs. 1,500 ($20)
slow registration
Shareholder gift-
Book Launch
» Kenyan Pundit Mau Mau Research Centre and Prof. Maina wa Kinyatti cordially invite you to the launch of the Book - HISTORY OF RESISTANCE IN KENYA 1884-2002 authored by Maina wa Kinyatti on Friday 28th November 2008 between 5.30 - 7.30 pm at GOETHE-INSTITUT NAIROBI
Guest Speakers:· Hon. James Orengo- Minister for Lands
· His Excellency Mr. Julio César Gónzález Marchante -Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Cuba
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5 Investments for 2009
» bankelele The year is about done and its time to start planning for 2009, with alternatives to build alongside the shares portfolio that will be carried into the new year.
1. Money Markets: Unit trusts are currently offered by African Alliance, Old Mutual, British American, Stanbic, CBA, Suntra, Zimele, ICEA. The bare minimums for signing up are about Kshs. 100,000 (~$1,300), initial fee of 2% and annual fee of 2.
2. Real Estate: It’s time for to undertake a real estate investment that should be done in 2009 following the Pesa Tu’s blueprint though financiers have gone rather shy and some developments appear to have stalled. Have we reached a real estate peak after which it becomes a speculative bubble?
3. Social Networks: Need to invest more in offline social relationships – with buddies, friends, mentors, peers, chama societies and sports for spiritual, social, and physical health.
4. Travel more: My passport has grown mould this year and the need to breathe a different sort of air, see new sights and meet new people - locally and internationally is imperative for 2009. I had always wanted to visit Sauri – the Jeffrey Sachs millennium village, now I must add Kogelo to my travel plans for western Kenya
5. Become a pirate?: Investing is about risk and reward and the numbers are there for the new hot profession of late 2008. It’s not very different from what is my daily bread anyway.
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Abortion Mustn't Be Legalized
» Kenya Imagine Isn't it amazing that one hundred per cent of all the people advocating for the legalization of abortion were born? You see, the debate on the legalization of abortion is very selfish. It's the only battle where the victim (read unborn child) is never consulted.
Keep reading.
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Tandaa Roundup
» bankelele I was not able to attend last week's Tandaa - the first content conference hosted by the Kenya ICT Board, but have been noting what was said, and for other absentees, here’s a recap:
Rombo asks where were the bloggers? Multiple speakers acknowledged the important role Kenyan bloggers now play in generating and distributing Kenyan content. and later the (Kenya) ICT board has set aside US$4 million to be disbursed over the next four years to fund feasible Kenya content generation projects.
Kenyan Poet was there, gave a talk and also added a photo album of Tandaa photos from the event
Another nice recap from Kipkemoi who notes It is heartening that many website owners are earning good money from e-commerce… points that came out:
- There is a market for local content.
- The pay for registration model for portals and content sites isn’t feasible at the moment.
- Monetizing mobile content provision is easier. (because mobile users are used to paying for services)
- Government registration need to be streamlined, too many vague licences
From Brighter Monday - numbers don’t lie - While we continue to complain that there is no ecommerce in Kenya, this company realized a turnover of $2 million in 2007. Now that was eye opening. Well from my analysis I know this takes hard work. To prove this, they have about 8000 inbound links! And they are leaping of the fruits. (Anyone who was there can please confirm my figures in article's comments on this below);
- I was also impressed by (kenyanpoet.blogspot.com); I think she depicts a good example of successful blogging. A snapshot of her traffic analysis showed that 42% of traffic came from referral links, 40% from search engines, 16% was direct traffic while 4% was in 'others'
The Mars Group Kenya blog voiced the questions that I’m sure many attendees had in mind i.e. where’s the money? - I am a large local content generator and run a Kenyan governance and transparency web portal with 19 thematic sub-domains containing over 1 and a half million terabytes of local content including digitized government and official reports on the national budget, government, state corporations and good governance. The site also features original multi-media resources including online news content generated by a team of 17 Kenyans all below the age of 30….In its first year of operation it got over 20 million hits, registered over 7,000 subscribers and webcast live international events including the November 5th election victory of Barack Obama from the US Ambassador’s Residence from http://marstv.marsgroupkenya.org .The site is regularly cited as an authority by local and international media and was recognized as a new media exemplar by www.opendemocracy.net.
Offline comments from the Skunkworks forum include a lengthy one from Robert Alai who commented that We must focus on local mpaka it becomes music……If you wanted a subscription website, you should have started with kenyalaw.org. If you wanted affiliates, mamamikes.com has affiliates. Lets focus on local…local examples and then mention the foreign ones just .. when you make people believe that Facebook is great, we won’t head anywhere. See why Tanzanians are engaging more in bongo5.com and jamiiforums than facebook and others. They are actively loading pics and content and these two websites are really coming…..up well and considering the age of the websites, we will see nice things from them. We should not glorify anything western. We must start appreciating our own facebook like Ngari has developed a good site, www.kasarani.com
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News: East African Community
» Kenya Imagine We continue to love the idea, at least the state does, our brothers south of the border it seems do not. East Africa Minister Amason Kingi just out of a Zanzibar conference quoted saying the Tanzanians are asking the other states to slow down in unification efforts. The Customs Union was supposed to have morphed by year end into a full common market, with equal rights for migration, property purchases, etc.
Want more?
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Mama Mike’s E-Goat
» Kenyan Pundit Paying your first dowry installment via the internet?
It is possible, with Mama Mikes….you HAVE to watch this video!
People are truly creative.
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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,
Want more? -
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.
Want more?
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Activists arrested for distributing t-shirts and dvds
» Kenyan Pundit Two Kenyan activists Wangui Mbatia and and Ken Ochieng Onguka were arrested this morning at Jeevanjee gardens and charged this afternoon with “unlawful procession” at the Kibera Law Courts
They have been released on Kshs 20,000 cash bail.
The t-shirts were protesting the Kenyans MPs recent rejection of taxes (No taxes for MP’S - No taxes for Us’on their allowances) and the DVDs were urging Kenyans to push for the implementation of Waki. The DVDs and images of the t-shirts can be viewed at Marsgroup.
Ah Kenya, last week we had a day off to celebrate the triumph of change in America…this week we are arresting people who are peacefully advocating for change. Where is the outrage?
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KNCHR full report on extra-judicial killings
» Kenyan Pundit
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A changing morality: Obama and Kenya
» Kenya Imagine The Kenyan papers are filled with reports on the US election; the country is in a proper frenzy. The Prime Minister has declared that we do not expect Obama to win, we know he will. It is all very exciting. I had a meeting down for Wednesday, but it was cancelled last night as the other party was unsure how safe town would be on that day, the day after the US election. Things have come to that.
Want more?
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UN Procurement Scandal in Kenya - full report
» Kenyan Pundit Hat tip to my trusty source! (now if someone can unleash those Waki names…)
The UN’s procurement task force recently unraveled a procurement corruption scandal at the UN offices in Nairobi. You can now read the full report here: un. I just skimmed over it…boy is the process bureaucratic or what? I’m sure there’s lots more stuff going on under the radar if this is what it takes to investigate corruption within the organization. Apparently UN staff have not been happy with the taskforce’s work because it “does not respect their rights” and the task force will soon be disbanded…don’t mess with the gravy train I guess.
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PEN-Kenya Celebrates Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish
» Kenya Imagine KI poetry editor pays tribute to a Palestinian poet.
On September 19, 2008, Philo Ikonya, International PEN Kenya Centre president called me and mentioned the need for us to have a poetry reading in honor of Mahmoud Darwish, the departed Palestinian poet.
Want more?
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Mostly Centum
» bankelele Mostly Centum
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Kwani Litfest on Africa Journal
» Kenyan Pundit -
24 Nairobi
» Kenyan Pundit I’m loving this! It’s all about something I’m passionate about…creating our own content, telling our own stories, and reflecting the diversity of Africa. Kudos to the folks behind it (and doesn’t Nairobi look HOT!!! Hat tip Juergen!
24 Nairobi “is intended as a showcase of a modern African city through the eyes of its own photographers. A lot of times cities in Africa are viewed through the narrow lenses and stories of missionaries, career war photographers and aid workers. 24 Nairobi brings together local, regional and international creative professionals to evolve powerful and realistic images and narratives that would reflect the working-life diversity, cultures, energy and dimensions of cities in Africa. This is an alternative, innovative, realistic and professional African perspective. All the photographers reside in Nairobi and grew up or now call Nairobi “home”. This aesthetic has now been captured.”
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18:01 Back to School - Chip in for Gladys’ school fees
» Afromusing 
I struggled with whether to blog this or not, but decided that Kenyan bloggers are a wonderful bunch and would welcome an opportunity to do something good for a fellow Kenyan. So much so that its not a good idea for this to be something that just a few blogger pals do, but that we get others to chip in. For those of us who grew up in Kenya, we understand that the KCSE (Kenya Certificate Secondary Examination) is one of the most important tests for all students in the Kenyan school system.The pressure, the frayed nerves, the ‘trans-nighting’. Imagine the test being 1 month away and you are being kicked out of school because the school fees have not been paid and you do not have means of raising the Kshs 43,000 ($615) so you can take the exam. This is the situation that Gladys finds herself in. We have a short time, and I believe we can get her fee paid so she can sit for her exam. Josiah - The Alpha Quadrant got the ball rolling and has provided all the info we need in order to fulfill this through the remittance service Mamamikes, with the money going directly to her school. For Glady’s privacy kindly email jmugambi at gmail dot com or myself afromusing at gmail dot com and we can give you her full name and details to enter in the mamamikes page for fee remittance. Might change the post to include all the info, but for now lets just err on the side of privacy. Lets get Gladys back to school now shall we?
Kshs 5530 donated already, Kshs 37470 ($535) to go.
Update 9/25/08: Amount remaining is Ksh 27400 and pledges from the community total Ksh 20,000
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Google East Africa Gadget Competition winners
» Kenyan Pundit The winners have been announced…I still think the prizes could be ramped up, but nevertheless it’s good to see innovation out there (and let me stop hating, it’s not like Kenyan tech companies are out there promoting innovation). -
Kenya govt/parastatal office = twilight zone
» Kenyan Pundit You have to read this post. I’m sure many of us can relate.
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Kenya Bank Rankings: June 08 Briefs
» bankelele Kenya Bank Rankings: June 08 Briefs
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The Looming Class war in Kenya
» Kenya Imagine I remember reading, almost a year ago, an article by the former member of parliament for Subukia, Hon. Koigi Wamwere, that spoke of a section of Kenyans retreating to high-walled complexes in search of solace and security. The fact is, there is a rise in the number of Kenyans who grow richer by day, but who no longer feel safe and need to move to new neighbourhoods and invest in more security; it is these to whom Koigi referred.
Read more from James Muritu here.
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On Why Amnesty for Grand Corruption is a Bad Idea…
» Kenyan Pundit Mars Group is (as always) on top of things. And is it just me, or is John Githongo’s operation rather lame? AOB: One of the best summaries of Obama’s speech that I’ve read from the pundits (for real some of the talking heads on TV deserve to be slapped). -
Kenya in the Olympics
» Kenyan Pundit I want to join everyone in congratulating the Kenyan athletes for a tremendous performance…the marathon gold was the icing on the cake. And then I’m going to rain on the parade by asking why the hell there were more officials than athletes in the Kenyan contigent that went to Beijing? According to the Nation: [...]
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The Psyche of a Kenyan Police Officer
» Kenya Imagine The average police officer's job requires that he makes instant street decisions of the wisest and least provocative caliber yet he was not tested for emotional stability before joining the force. He has an ambivalent view of his work and often regrets joining the force.He feels that he is only a cog in a machine. He believes that much of the public regards him with contempt and hostility. Attitude samplings show too, that he is prejudiced against women, youth and low income earners. He has little appreciation of the psychology and culture of these populations. He is aware that fellow officers often treat citizens with rudeness, abuse and even roughness.
Read more.
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Forum on Vision 2030
» Kenyan Pundit The Institute of Economic Affairs is holding a Public Forum on Vision 2030 on Wednesday, 27th August 2008 at 4.45 p.m. – 7.30 p.m. at The Sarova Stanley Hotel-Ball Room. The aim of the Forum is to present the Vision 2030 and critique the Economic and Political Pillars. Due to past work with scenarios and visions, IEA-Kenya was co-opted [...] -
Githongo Talk at Strathmore
» Kenyan Pundit This Friday at 2.30 p.m. John Githongo will be giving a talk on “Re-defining Ethics in Africa – Key issues”. The talk is based in his research at St Anthony’s, College Oxford. Venue: Strathmore Business School, Lecture Hall Hat tip MM!
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16:30
Hear us ROAR
» Mentalacrobatics Now that the child’s play (gymnastics, swimming, equestrian, kayaking etc) in Beijing is over the JOGOO of Africa roars (as much as a JOGOO can roar anyway).
The only country that is worthy of a seat next to Kenya is Jamaica. As for the rest of you, you can steal our athletes with PetroDollars, LegoDollars and MacDollars but until you start eating ugali you haven’t got a chance.)
In other news
our dear (younger) brothers from Uganda, this is what we meant last time. Hehe ati dethrone Kenya in Nairobi. Never talk badly again!
(Balanced, non jingoistic, rational coverage continues after the Olympics etc)
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2008. | Permalink | One comment
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Blogging Kwani Lit Fest
» Kenyan Pundit Were you unable to make it to Kwani Litfest? Get a feel of what a great event it was via Arno Kopecky’s witty commentary. -
Google News Kenya now up.
» Kenyan Pundit Click here for the link. -
Update on Civil Society Campaign against Police Violence
» Kenyan Pundit BY SHAILJA PATEL A brief update on our progress so far in the civil society campaign against escalating state and police violence in Kenya. For background, please see the statement titled: “Kenya: Investigate Police Brutality”, at the bottom of this email. Triumphs (1) Three hours after we rolled out the Direct Action campaign yesterday, Prime Minister Raila Odinga encountered [...] -
Support Civil Society Activists
» Kenyan Pundit Date: Tuesday August 5th Time of hearing: 9:00 am Venue: Kibera Court Directions: Coming from the direction of town on Ngong Rd, turn left on Mugo Kibiru Road (before Ngong Hills Hotel and Nakumatt Prestige Plaza). Go down Mugo Kibiru Road until the T-junction. Turn LEFT at T-junction, and continue until you see Chief’s Office, courthouse, and government [...] -
Young Kenyans express themselves
» Kenyan Pundit I came across this interesting Digital Storytelling Project today (hat tip Bankelele!). The project aims to help the Undungu Society and the street children they work with get their voices heard through voices and pictures. Please visit the blogs and encourage the young authors to keep expressing themselves. It is [...] -
Violence in Kenyan high schools
» Kenyan Pundit In the last few days Kenyan headlines have been dominated by reports of increasing levels of violence and riots in high schools. Things appear to have reached a crisis point with the obligatory formation of a “committee” to investigate the cause of the riots. According to some news reports, students are [...] -
Did anyone else catch this?
» Kenyan Pundit Apparently Ntimama was caught on tape making threats regarding the Mau eviction order. Anyone else catch this?
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Kimunya:Death Certificate (temporary)
» Mentalacrobatics Patient: Amos Muhinga Kimunya
Occupation: Member of Parliament for Kipipiri Constituency
Previous positions held: Minister of Finance, Kenya
Notable quote: “I would rather die than resign.”
Cause of death: Death by Hubris© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2008. | Permalink | One comment
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Kutwa Tuesday: July 8 Briefs
» bankelele away from the Grand Regency
Banking
- CFC/Stanbic merger/takeover formalized: As at June 1, the combined banking groups had assets of 78.3 billion shillings [$1.26 billion], deposits of 55 billion [$888 m] and loans of 38.9 billion [$627m]
- EABS Bank is now Ecobank Kenya
- Business Cubs: Bank of Africa will launch a small business Club for clients.
- Going international: building on the success of Safaricom’s M-Pesa, Vodafone will do money transfer between UK and Kenya challenging western union on phone transfers to India, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa (from Balancing Act Africa)
Investments
- Everyone lovers Safaricom; with 90% of the shares volumes since listing, the company has been added to the AIG index, NSE 20 and NASI indexes from July 1
- One month after Safaricom allocations, and despite paying an extra fee (30/= for a CDS statement) and making several trades, no new CDS statement has come in the mail
Media
- KTN joins the morning show club with Sunrise Live – coming a few months after Citizen TV and Nation (NTV) with their ‘breakfast shows’
- There’s a new relaunched Standard newspaper out today with new layout – but their byline For Fairness, Justice, and Prosperity is straight out of Superman
Energy
- Sweden/China joint oil search: Lundin Kenya has bought a share of the field assigned to China [Block 9, Kenya].
Travel
- Having moved to cut out travel agents, Kenya Airways will next offer hotel and car booking online at their website
- Rift Valley Railways (RVR) will raise freight charges up 14.5% and will charge a fuel surcharge based on average diesel cost and US$ exchange rate from 1st august
Other
- Kenya has no summer or winter, but the high court has a summer vacation from 1st to 8th August
Questions from the blogs
- A recap of the Kenya Re AGM
- Has tourism in the Mara recovered in 2008?
- Does EDGE or 3G after all?
Opportunities
Digital: KDN and the ICT Kenya Digital Village are offering free connectivity for digital villages and schools: the program targets rural cyber cafes and schools – who are willing to pay a set- up fee, and share some revenue earned with KDN
Investments
- The Barclays Bond closes tomorrow (9/7)
- KCB rights close on 18/7 – so far only NBK has offered loans for KCB rights (up to 90% finance)
Jobs
- EABL: logistics manager, governance improvement manager, group audit & risk manager, application support analyst, procurement managers (2). Apply to hr.recruitment@eabl.com
- The electoral commission of Kenya: registrar of political parties, internal audit manager, finance officer. D/L is 23/7 by snail mail
- Captains of B1900 C and D at executive turbine. Apply through info@xturbine.co.ke
- Film commission of Kenya: head of programmes, hear of HR & administration, head of finance, Programmes manager, marketing assistant, legal assistant, ICT assistant, executive secretary. Apply to ceo@filmingkenya.com by 18/7
- Keroche: distributors, area sales representatives. Apply to director.marketing@keroche.com by 11/7
- National Oil Corp of Kenya: risk analysts, internal audit assistant, procurement analysts, supply analyst
- Executive director of the privatization commission which became operational in January 2008. Apply (through deloitte) to esd@deloitte.co.ke (22/7)
- Resources manager at the Rockefeller foundation. Apply (though KPMG) to esd@kpmg.co.ke by 11/7
and
Marie Stopes: deputy director of male circumcision project (africa) [location: zambia} and male circumcision partnership deputy project manager [location: zimbabwe] d/l is 19/7
Scholar/internships
- Rhodes Scholarships (2) for Kenyans. D/L is 31/8
- World Bank young professionals program. D/L is 15/7
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Kwani Litfest website is up
» Kenyan Pundit Should be a great event, featuring writing workshops, book launches, top African writers and so much more. Click here for more details. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Kwani Litfest website is up", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/07/07/kwani-litfest-website-is-up/" }); -
Grand Regency / Kimunya
» Kenyan Pundit A couple of KP readers have written to ask why I haven’t done a post on this issue…it’s simply because I have nothing to add beyond what everyone else is writing/opining. It’s a travesty, Kenyans are being ripped off, MPs are happy to get back at Kimunya, the sale financed PNU, Kimunya will [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Grand Regency / Kimunya", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/07/04/grand-regency-kimunya/" }); -
Poor women being detained at Pumwani Maternity Hospital
» Kenyan Pundit PLEASE HELP GET THE MESSAGE OUT. THE WOMEN ARE BEING DETAINED FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO PAY THE DELIVERY FEE OF KSHS 3,400. We, at KENGO believe that it is our responsibility to hold all public institutions accountable and to ensure that in the delivery of services the right of all to dignity is respected. [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Poor women being detained at Pumwani Maternity Hospital", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/06/28/poor-women-being-detained-at-pumwani-maternity-hospital/" });
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What Amos Kimunya did not tell you about the budget
» Mentalacrobatics The Kenyan government, like most governments around the world, is well versed in the art of deploying and utilising smokescreens. As the name implies the purpose of the smokescreen is to hide something from view or atleast divert attention away from an issue or subject that the government would rather was not noticed, leave alone discussed or debated at all. These smokescreens come in various forms but they all share some of the same characteristics.
For example the smokescreens usually contain something completely ridiculous which leads us to wonder what planet members of our government come from. This was the favoured tactic of the Moi regime. Here is an example. Did you notice how when there was a negative and potential very damaging story about the government dominating the news agenda one of Moi’s ministers would stand up and give a speech in which he would make some ridiculous claim? My favourite one was that Kenya was about to bid to host the Olympics. Predictably we would all get outraged and froth at the mouth and spend the next month partaking in debates with our friends and colleagues, remarking to each other that there are other priorities for the government to focus on, we would chuckle at the idea of the creaking Kenyan infrastructure being asked to host such a large event, and we would write articles to display our intellectual fortitude informing the minister that Olympics are hosted by CITIES not COUNTRIES so Kenya could not bid for the Olympics but Nairobi could. Of course by the time we had exhausted all this energy we would have forgotten what issue we were discussing before the minister made his ridiculous statement. And as we laughed all the way to our bars and coffee shops content that we were smarter than our ministers, our self proclaimed Professor of Politics was laughing at our constant ability to be played.
More recently we have seen another smokescreen deployed occasionally. When difficult questions started surfacing about what we now call “Anglo-Leasing type contracts” the First Lady would go out and do something totally ridiculous, such as raid a private party at the World Bank country director’s house in her pyjamas. When the questions about corruption would not stop the First Lady would either storm a police station and demand the cops arrest somebody or storm a media house by herself in the dead of the night and proceed to slap reporters – an act that is 110% guaranteed to dominate the media’s new agenda. Where was Kibaki, we would ask, why didn’t State House intervene when the First Lady’s security detail first reported her irrational and illegal actions?
Well maybe State House did not intervene because they had just deployed their smokescreen. And soon afterwards whispers about medication being deliberately withheld from the First Lady to ensure her irrational behaviour continues started to surface. These days whenever the First Lady does something outrageous I check the newspapers from the previous week to try and figure out what they are trying to hide.
In June 2008 we have been thrown yet another smokescreen, this time by the Minister of Finance, Amos Kimunya. This smokescreen, brilliant deployed it must be said, centres around Budget and the issue of whether Members’ of Parliament should pay tax on their salaries and allowances. Of course they should. That is obvious and indeed it is ridiculous that in 2008 we can still debate this. Of course Members’ of Parliament should pay tax on their salaries and allowances. Predictably many MPs are resisting all attempts to pay tax and that is the debate that has dominated the Kenyan news agenda in the past couple of weeks.
This debate about MPs and taxation is a smokescreen which Mwalimu Mati the CEO of MARS Group Kenya has exposed with his usually thoroughness. If MPs paid tax the Treasury would save between Ksh. 600 million and Ksh. 700 million. That is good money. However, Kimunya’s latest budget is full of waste, which runs into the HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of shillings. And that is even better money. And all this is probably going to pass unscrutinzed by a parliament full of MPS whose only point of concern in this Budget is whether or not they are to be taxed.
Please download [pdf 48 kb] , read, blog and circulate widely Mati’s article. You can download [pdf 48kb] it here.
Some shocking statistcs:
- Last year the Government of Kenya budget for entertainment of its guests amounted to Ksh 5.7 million per day for EVERY day of the year.
- The Governemnet of Kenya spends Ksh 3.995 billion on rents per annum and only receives Ksh 239.368 million per year from property income and rent.
- Last year, the Government of Kenya spent over Ksh 6.7 million per day every day of the year on foreign travel. This is set to increase in this budget.
- Did you know that State House Nairobi has 149 cars? Did you know that this year Minister of Finance wants to buy Ksh 73 million more worth of cars for State House? Did you know that last year a similar amount of money was spent on cars at State House? Did you know that the Government budget for cars for 2008 has gone up by 1 billion shillings, even as public attention is consumed by the debate on MP’s allowances?
- Every year the Minister of Finance presents lump sum budgets for the National Security Intelligence Services, the Armed Forces and the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission. This year their collective budgets will pass the Ksh 47 billion mark – and yet they will be no debate on the budget items in them because the Minister of Finance has helpfully provided none.
And the best one
Ksh. 47 BILLION!
Kenyans let us demand that our MPs accept that they have a duty to pay taxes but let us not allow this debate on MPs allowances to distract us from the bigger picture. Do not be fooled by the smokescreen! Demand equally that your MP take his or her constitutional responsibility seriously and scrutinise Amos Kimunya’s ridiculous Budget.
Please download [pdf 48 kbs], read, blog, and circulate widely Mati’s article. You can download it here [pdf 48kb].
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2008. | Permalink | 5 comments
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2008 Budget A to Z
» bankelele 2008 Budget A to Z
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Bunge la mwananchi protestors arrested
» Kenyan Pundit Statement from George Nyongesa of Bunge La Mwananchi: Two nights and three days after wananchi led by Bunge La Mwananchi demonstrated on the streets of Nairobi to protest against high food prices and the escalating cost of living, ten Kenyans are still being held at the Central Police Station in Nairobi because “the matter is [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Bunge la mwananchi protestors arrested", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/06/02/bunge-la-mwananchi-protestors-arrested/" });
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Total 2008 AGM
» bankelele Total 2008 AGM -
Business Brief's: May 15
» bankelele Business Brief's: May 15
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Sessional Paper No. 10
» Kenyan Pundit Interesting analysis of how the (in)famous Sessional Paper no 10 authored by edit Tom Mboya (mea culpa for previously attributing to Kibaki and thanks to those who corrected, great background on Mboya can be found here) is relevant to the current situation in Kenya. EDIT: (Woz, here’s a better link, Cheers). Full text [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Sessional Paper No. 10", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/05/13/sessional-paper-no-10/" }); -
Mental Break: Safari Rally
» Kenyan Pundit So me and the fam were out of town for the holiday weekend…while driving to one of the tourist sites we visited, we came across groups of people parked on the side of the road waiting for cars participating in the Sasol Rally (never heard of it before) to drive by. It reminded me of [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Mental Break: Safari Rally", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/05/06/mental-break-safari-rally/" });
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Motoring Moment
» bankelele Motoring Moment
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You can apparently fool Kenyans all of the time…
» Kenyan Pundit How else do you explain how Uhuru Kenyatta is getting away with his ridiculous traffic de-congestion plan? Only in Kenya, can you attempt to ease congestion in the CBD by banning public transport. This solution comes from a guy who’s never ever even dreamed of taking public transport. Beyond the ridiculousness in [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "You can apparently fool Kenyans all of the time…", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/03/25/you-can-apparently-fool-kenyans-all-of-the-time/" });
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NSSF: apples & oranges
» bankelele Kenya’s National Social Security Fund finally released their year end results in the newspapers today after many years of pressure by governance experts and regulators. The scheme hopes to convert into a pension fund and states that it plans to hold an AGM soon
While the statements show improved performance over the last four years (NSSF-K was abused in the 1990’s and forced into bad property investments and lost billions in collapsed banks), how does it compare with NSSF Uganda who released their results last week?
approximate conversion to US$
Buildings/property/land
NSSFK $434 million (35%)
NSSFU $76 million (13%)
Government Securities
NSSFK $115 million (9%)
NSSFU $289 million (51%)
Equities
Uganda list their holdings. – as Uganda Clays , Baroda, Nsimbe, DFCU, Stanbic, Serena, HFCU, Victoria properties. Kenyan one does not list but would include Unilever Tea, Nation media group, HFCK (11%) KCB (8%) British American Tobacco (20%) East African Breweries (8%), EAP cement (27%), and National Bank (48%)
NSSFK $618 million
NSSFU $54 million
Current assets
NSSFK $50 million
NSSFU $350 million
Current Liabilities
NSSFK $20 million
NSSFU $11 million
Members Funds
NSSFK $1,240 million
NSSFU $548 million
Totals assets
NSSFK $1,240 million
NSSFU $564 million
Income:
NSSFK $61 million
NSSFU $38 million
however the Kenyan one include changes in market value of shares in last year, adding another $80m to bring total income to $141m
Costs
NSSFK $41 million
NSSFU $7 million
Net Gain/Profit
NSSFK $147 million
NSSFU $31 million
Earlier:
- Under its current format, the ultimate payout will be low from NSSF(K) and the benefits at retirement will not be enough to sustain a majority of retirees
- Comparison between Stanbic Kenya and Stanbic Uganda. -
Motoring moment: asset finance personified
» bankelele 
nice poster here from Lunch over IP on urban transport solutions
The traffic crunch in Nairobi has gotten worse in the last week since 1/3 of the city’s commuters had restrictions placed on their access to downtown Nairobi.
It’s fait to say that over ¾ of cars from KAP___ onwards (cars registered in the last five years) are financed with asset or bank loans - so they are a reflection of the amount of credit in the economy.
But the traffic crunch will continue unless some serious measures are taken as there are few new roads or new parking spaces coming up in the city
What are some solutions?
- Better public transport as the image above shows.
- Restriction on vehicle imports/registrations; But bad for the economy, encourage corruption
- Restrictions on asset finance lending; but bad for banks
- Restrictions on vehicle use e.g. only use vehicles ending with odd number on one day, even the next: but favors the rich (with more than one car) and will encourage fraudulent license switching
- The India way (as adopted by Uganda) and small town in Kenya which is to have motorbikes as taxis. This would be great for those who work in the upper hill area
- Car pooling, temporary parking meters, new capital city? The list is endless
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22:56
Kisangani on TDS
» Afromusing 
Screen shot from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Noticed that the city ‘Kisangani’ in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) is displayed for afew seconds the spinning globe graphic at the beginning of the show.
Is Kisangani a place in the coastal province of Kenya too?
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Easter Tourism Expo
» bankelele 
Compared to last year’s expo, the first tourism expo of the year at Sarit Center had fewer stands, foreign exhibitors, and focus was on getting domestic tourists to rediscover the usual haunts.
You have to salute the industry for going ahead and trying to rebuild after two months of violence wiped out a decade of steady growth. While they were advertising Easter packages (discounts of about 10% if booked at the fair), their goal was to get the sector back on track in the long term.
Here are a few of the offerings still have a bias for the Coast;
new
- Holiday Homes Kenya, a network of fully staffed private homes for holiday.
– New Man Eaters Camp by Voi Wildlife Lodge at the site of the infamous man eating lions that terrorized railways builders in 1898
- Mombasa Continental hotel (former intercontinental hotel) opened in December 07 (days before election) has introductory rates valid up to December 20, 2008
- Wild Waters theme park in Nyali - which closed in January when the tourists left, but reopened over the weekend (March 9)
Coast
– Jacaranda Beach flying package from Nairobi for East Africa residents for Kshs. 22,400 (inclusive of 2 nights)
- Kenya Bay Beach Hotel has these prices for 2008; Kshs. 3,700 (up to April 30), Kshs. 3200 up to June 30, and Kshs. 3,500 (July up to December 31) (all half board, per person sharing)– lock in these low rates for the rest of the yeat before the tourism prices pick up
– Sun n Sand no special offers, but the hotel is still a favorite for state and private sector retreats at the coast, so may not struggle
Wildlife safaris
- Discover Wilderness has flying packages to the Mara (keekorok) and Samburu for Kshs. 24,950 per night and Kshs. 11,950 for extra night – (includes 3 game drives, full board valid up June 30)
- Serena have flying package to the Mara, Amboseli, Samburu, (2 nights, 2 game drives at 40,000 pp)
other
- Kenya Wildlife Services: who have self catering bandas in Amboseli, Tsavo and Mt. Kenya as well as Homa Bay, Marsabit, Mt. Elgon, Malindi and Kisite-Mpunguti (Kwale)
- Nairobi's Silver Springs Hotel has two new sister premises in Sangare Tented Camp and Green Hills Hotel in Nyeri
Airlines
- Discovered some ‘truths’ behind Fly 540 airline: low special offers; that $79 Entebbe and Juba $199 fare to Juba re one way and translate to $135 and $279 after the hefty taxes on both routes. So a round trip to Entebbe costs $270 while Nairobi-Juba and back is $558
- Air Kenya with their point to point flights are the best way for a tourists to avoid Kenya’s roads and get around in as little time as possible – so you can fly from Mombasa to Masai Mara, Mombasa-Kilimanjaro, fly from Nairobi to Lewa , from Samburu to Masai Mara etc.
- Virgin Atlantic have $425 Nairobi to London and $829 fares to Los Angeles or San Francisco
Elsewhere
not at the trade fair, but in the news over the weekend
Lewa marathon sponsored by Safaricom is open for registration up to 23/5
- Vipingo Ridge, a housing estate/golf course under development in Kilifi (40km north of Mombasa) by Rea Vipingo was a sponsor at the Kenya Open Golf Course. Some plots of land are still available but not much info is online yet about it.
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Vote for Ushahidi in the Netsquared Mashup Challenge
» Mentalacrobatics The last two months have been eye opening not just for me but for all Kenyans and all friends of Kenya. I have been shocked by some of the nonsensical narrow minded views that swept through the country, and it has to be said, through the blogs. Undoubtedly some friendships will never be the same again as people could not help but show their true colours.
However, the blessing of being so involved in the response to the post election crisis that engulfed Kenya is that for all the nonsensical, narrow minded views that I encountered, for every person I came across who was hell bent on stirring up hate, I would find ten people who would do anything to pull the country back from the brink.
Patriots would put careers on the line, friendships on the line, family relationships on the live and others even put their lives on the line to stand up and be counted as an agent for peace not for division. While some bloggers would announce that they could never take someone from another tribe home to their parents, other Kenyans were busy organising a media event where couples with each partner from a different tribe would publicly declare that they will not be part of any nonsense which insisted they leave their partners to show their loyalty to tribe.
Apart from the personal relationships another trend which warmed my heart was that professionals would rise up and find ways through which they could utilise their professional services to help save the country. A group of writers gathered and formed the Concerned Kenyan Writers coalition which aims to use writing skills to humanise the crisis, the techie community such as Skunkworks offered technical IT and ICT support to the relief efforts, the legal fraternity came up with similar initiatives, the top musicians and producers in the country got into the studios, journalists as well. Bloggers usually wear more than one hat and in each of the other groups mentioned above you will find bloggers.
Some initiatives are blog driven, they were born in blogs and grew in the blogs, were lead by bloggers and publicised by blogs. They are blogger lead and blogger dominated. One such project which I am honoured to work on is the Ushahidi project which was born out of Kenyan Pundit thinking out loud on her blog and Hash hearing those voices and running with them. The site was born on the blogs and brought in to existence by David Kobia, a guy who has been a huge supporter of Kenyan blogs and bloggers, in JUST TWO DAYS. I am yet to hear of another project that launched so successfully, that proved to be so ground breaking that was launched in such a short period of time. Kenyans across the globe showing what can happen with cooperation and commitment.
Ushahidi is the Kiswahili word for witness.
From Hash
Ushahidi.com is a tool for people who witness acts of violence in Kenya in these post-election times. You can report the incident that you have seen, and it will appear on a map-based view for others to see.So what’s Ushahidi.com about… (for those who don’t know Kiswahili, ushahidi is the Swahili word for witness). The website was mainly set up to document incidents of violence, lotting etc. during the crisis (and soon to follow - information about ways to help on a micro-level). The website is still very much a work in progress and will be updated as we go along.
We believe that the number of deaths being reported by the government, police, and media is grossly underreported. We also don’t think we have a true picture of what is really going on - reports that all have us have heard from family and friends in affected areas suggests that things are much worse than what we have heard in the media.
We want to continue mapping not only the violence, but also the ‘doves’ or peace efforts happening in Kenya. The last two months have been traumatic to our collective psyche, and we would like to be well equipped to continue this important project. While we will not hide from the trauma of the events; we want make Ushahidi even more relevant to other countries in Africa.
Since the launch of ushahidi the support from within the blogging community and from the main stream media as well, has been phenomenal. I have lost count of the number of radio and print interviews that have come my way because of interest in the project. Now Ushahidi needs your help again. Ushahidi has been entered in to the $100,000 Netsquared Mashup Challenge for further development. This is big in very many ways. It helps secure the future of the project and it helps secure the independence of the project, it allows the project to grow beyond Kenya, it give the opportunity for a powerful and increasingly necessary tool to achieve its potential.Please show your support for Ushahidi by voting for the project on Netsquared you have to register to vote, registration takes less time than it took you to read this sentence and voting takes even shorter. Help us to drive this project forward. Please read and link Hash’s post on the Ushahidi NetSquared challenge and remember to VOTE!
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2008. | Permalink | 9 comments
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The lie of the land
» Kenya Imagine The Africa Policy Institute, a Kenya based independent think tank has released a report titled The Lie of the land: Evictions and Kenya's crisis.
It argues that while Kenya, like other former British white settler colonies such as South Africa and Zimbabwe have yet to decisively deal with the legacy of colonial and post-colonial injustices relating to land ownership, the link between the on-going systematic evictions in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya and “post-colonial injustices” relating to land is very tenuous. A much more plausible explanation is that Kenya is reeling under a deadly intra-elite power game that has come to characterise multi-party politics here.
Read more from Patrick Mutahi here. -
What is America's stake in this?
» Kenya Imagine America's involvement in Kenya's post-elections political crises must be seen against the background of its "war on terror"- and the unilateralism that propelled it.
The State Department at first congratulated President Mwai Kibaki on his re-election but later rescinded as European Union and other observers reported irregularities in the vote-count. Since then, the Bush administration has been trying not to take sides in the election dispute and his Ambassador taken unofficial role as the Spokesperson for the entire International community pressuring Kenya's political elite to come to a compromise. To America, it is unfathomable that one of its most reliable and crucial partners in the "war against terror" was going to crumble in its lap.
Read more from Patrick Mutahi here. -
Bush on Africa
» Kenya Imagine US President George W. Bush departs for Africa in an effort to highlight his commitment to the benighted continent and burnish his foreign-policy legacy. In Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia, he'll tout initiatives to encourage democracy and combat poverty, disease and corruption. What follows here is his speech at the Smithsonian Insititute last evening.
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The Road to Namanga
» bankelele Run for the border
After a month of being cooped up with elections and politics, it's a welcome opportunity to take a brief trip out of town.
The drive to Namanga is pleasant and with many causal things to observe. However it takes about an hour to leave Nairobi, owing to the traffic from the City Center up to before the airport.
The expansion of Mombasa Road (to three lanes) contributes to a major traffic jam as we pass the still-under-construction new Standard/KTN building, Vision Plaza - an office complex that was slightly ahead of its time, and is still looking to fill some vacant spaces, and Panari Hotel – host of an ice rink, Brazilian restaurant and affordable convenience for transit passengers. As we pass the Jomo Kenyatta Airport in early afternoon, one of new Fly 540 aircraft swoops in to land.
Traffic is slow, at the by-passes and diversions of what used to be Mlolongo infamous meat eating area, towards Athi River which now has an almost -complete cement factory by Tororo Cement who will be the fourth major local producer.
Then there's the Rattansi peace village, proposed site of new Hindu University of Kenya, and numerous single houses. Whatever real estate prices are in the area, they will probably triple in the next dozen years, after the by pass and dual carriage way roads are completed.
On into plains area with occasional zebra sightings. There are numerous chicken-rearing farms for Kenchic and flower estates. Flower farms are visible even from aircraft, and i wonder if it is possible for a media company to draw up some adverts to be displayed on these roofs for long-distance advertising.
Then the curio shops, some which say 'welcome' in German (and other languages) to attract tourists, a well-maintained railway, trains and wagons belonging to Magadi Soda Company. Magadi also have a trial farm growing jatropha seedlings, and this is the road to Amboseli which I wonder why it is not as world famous as the Masai Mara.
Amboseli, has arguably the same wild life concentration, is closer to Nairobi and has better road access. To (cap it all) it has Mt. Kilimanjaro as it's background.
Finally get to Namanga is about 130 kilometres from Nairobi (from where one can branch off to the gates of Amboseli 70km away, but on murram roads). Namanga is the border of Kenya and Tanzania, but a stop for petrol is not the best decision if you have a travel van. We get hit with high pressure Masai saleswomen – who I had read about but never met – they have very aggressive sales tactics aimed at tourists with dollars. They all chatter and take turns to persuade you to buy their trinkets - pressing beads or amulets to your arms or chest and refusing to take them back, saying they are gifts. Yeah, right!
On into no-man's land at the border. You have to fill out a departure form on the Kenya side and an arrival form on the tanzania side – all in a space of a 100 metres.
On both sides, there are border 'fixers' who are residents of this zone, and who traverse both country offices on foot helping people crossing with bureaucracy, currency, tax difficulties. If you don't use them, it can take over an hour to cross, with most of the delay comes from the insurance requirement for every personal vehicle at the border.
The Kenya side is the domain of Somali businessmen and they have imposed their law here; it's like a mini-Eastleigh, clean, orderly, no alcohol, but with tea houses and many super-markets with names like Libaan, Dubai, Taafrik, Mubarak, and Mandera.
The trans-border business acumen of Somali business people is something to be admired as even people in Dubai and China shop and collect their gods from Eastleigh. One day, after the political temperature has gone down, some local university should offer business classes on Somali, Kikuyu and Hindu business, trade, and management models -with business cases to study. I'd pay to attend that class
Namanga is also a mark of contract for two countries, and Kenya loses this time. The Tanzania side of the border is also clean and air-conditioned. But the pen's to fill out forms actually work and there is an eye-scan device for those requiring Tanzanian visa's. Once you step into Tanzania side, it's like you stepped in to coast province, with many buildings having Makuti (coconut thatch)roofs.
Also you can now buy roast tilapia fish and the chips are more generous and healthier than those on the Kenya side, with more drink varieties (Heineken, Pepsi).And that's a day at the border -
Issues for Diaspora Investors
» bankelele Unit trusts
In all the political news this week, some may have missed this story on collective investment schemes (funds, unit trust), who will now have to get more aggressive (take on more risk) to deliver commensurate returns - and are now asking the regulator (CMA) to relax some of the rules that restrict their investments.
A year ago this post discussed unit trusts and the cost of investment being a major deterrent to the returns they offer (and at the time the NSE was in a much better position). I still have issues with the 3 – 5% initial fee and 2% annual fee charged by many unit trusts.
Real estate
The post-election violence will have a mostly negative impact on property values and in rural Kenya, and in towns like Eldoret, Kisumu, Nakuru and especially in Mombasa (where the real estate boom was driven by visitors/tourism numbers). The cost of building will also go up as demand for supplies will be great. So buy cement company shares (Bamburi, ARM, Portland) the day Kofi Annan succeeds in his mediation efforts
In Nairobi, properties near slums like Ayany (adjacent to Kibera) have been badly affected owners and/or tenants moving out. However there is also increased demand in some of the same areas – perceived to be safer parts of the city, such as Kileleshwa and Westlands. They will also benefit from residents of other towns like Kisumu relocating to Nairobi.
These are also the areas that many Diaspora Kenyans have invested in or are considering investing; and while many have postponed their real estate investment decisions, those already in (with mortgages to pay) will have to wait out the storm. Also it may be wise to set up several investment companies to keep rental turnover and sidestep new tax laws
Also Kasarani which is one place you can still buy land cheaply to build, will have values of land increasing as will parts of Central Kenya.
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Kenya's 100 People
» Kenya Imagine If Kenya was reduced to a village of 100 people, 22 of those people would be Kikuyu, 14 would be Luhya, and 13 would be Luo.
Of the remaining, 11 would be Kamba, 6 Kisii, 6 Meru, 15 of other African tribes, and 1 Asian/European. Only 1 would be Maasai. 10 people live in Nairobi, 3 in Mombasa and almost 2 in Kisumu.
Read more from Nanjala Nyabola here.
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6:54
Bloggers for Kenya: Thank you
» Afromusing Thank you to our dear blogger friends for supporting Kenya, and for spreading the word on the ‘Support Kenyans in Distress’ campaign with Mamamikes.com
Georgia of Caribbean Free Radio
African Loft
Kikuyu MojaAs the Mamamikes blog updates, the amount is exceeding $1900.
May i reiterate the thanks to the following people….Omolo, Kuria, Kimura, Nyokabi, Miaud, Edgerton, Monyo, Kimeria, Dsouza, Kangethe, Muthoni, Coseac, Barbieri, Patel, Jabbar, Mann, Warungongo, Wairimu, Juergen, Njoroge, Laurance, Wanja, Wambui, Romanos, Lutz, Popplewell, Walsh, Kamau
Thank you to the following Kenyan Bloggers for committing their time to volunteer on the 17th.
M of Thinkers Room
Bankelele
Josiah Mugambi of Skunkworks and Mission Driven
Mentalacrobatics
The list is growing, so if you are a kenyan blogger/blog reader in Nairobi, please leave a comment if you can make it. we understand the situation might be tenuous but we hope it will be calm on Thursday. If you have any questions please feel free to send me an email, afromusing at gmail dot comDate: Thursday January 17th 2008
Location: Mamamikes office - Kingsway Hse opposite Nairobi Outpatient Center on Muindi Mbingu Street
Time: 5pmPS: Ushahidi Update: Local number to report an incident is +254 711 862 149 6007
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8:58
Genius Heal Kenya Initiative
» Startups in Kenya Yesterday was a proud day for me. Our business incubator Genius Executive Centre launched the Genius Heal Kenya Initiative. This initiative's main objective is to assist families displaced by the Kenyan crisis through prayer and material donation (foodstuffs, clothes, blankets, toys etc.). With over seventy entrepreneurs as members of the Centre we are confident that this initiative shall make a real and positive difference in the lives of fellow Kenyans.
We have partnered with the Karen branch of the Red Cross to distribute the donations to the displaced families. Any contribution you can make towards this initiative is welcome.
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Bankers' post-election assessments
» bankelele Citigroup (CITI)
- Limited impact on economy if political crisis is resolved. It Matters little to the economy who won the election as private sector will continue to drive growth
- Share sell off at NSE could be a good buying opportunity as economic fundamentals unchanged
- President will use police and military to clamp down on protests which themselves will not last more than a few weeks
- Parliament loyalties will be split by president as MP’s vote with their stomach
- There’s little the international community can do besides pushing for reforms.
- Also in the pre-election period, the opposition may have been falsely buoyed by opinion polls which are not sound (& could the same thing have happened to Obama in New Hampshire ?)
Renaissance Capital (RENCAP)
- Crime wave has emerged under the guise of political riots
- Government may take all 12 nominated seats in parliament
- Reemergence of the civil society and NGO’s as source of political pressure and search for solution
- Main threat is if two parties don’t agree so may revise down the 6 – 7% GDP projections.
- Also prices have not factored in the chaos, so investors should hold off on buying.
Thanks to Silaha for the 2 reports – and who has also blogged some post-election predictions for Kenya
Treasury Officals:– from Business Daily
- Damage on the economy could cut the projected growth by as much as a half, if not worse.
As agricultural, financial services and tourism sectors are likely to under perform
- Treasury could be forced to craft a stimulus economic package to help reconstruct the affected regions and
- Lower the interest rates in the economy.
Central bank Governor - from Reuters
- Kenya can still achieve 8% growth in 2008
- Disruptions were temporary and will have a major impact on GDP growth
- Shilling’s depreciation was due to holiday period
- Safaricom IPO in first quarter of 2008
- Interest rates will not change
World Bank
(Hat tip Kumekucha) There’s a controvery brewing of the World Bank’s assessment of the election and resultant crisis
Excerpts;
- The considered view of the UN is that the ECK announcement of a Kibaki win is correct. More irregularities of consequence on the Odinga side than on the Kibaki side.
- The process of arriving at the result created a crisis of confidence due to missteps by (a) the ECK chair (who joked about possible rigging during a news conference), (b) the vocal EU observer who was not thorough and precise in analyzing information provided to him (c) the lack of preparation by Kibaki’s party in dealing with a highly media-savvy opposition.
-Moving forward. One option being explored is getting them to agree to a recount which, by law, has to be done through a petition to Kenya’s High Court. Eminent persons from abroad would monitor this recount. Meanwhile, Kibaki would proceed to form a Cabinet, possibly with some participation by Odinga supporters. It is unclear what would happen if the exercise arrived at a different result from the ECK decision. The gamble is that this would not happen and that even if it did, both sides would have a face-saving way to accept a change in course via-a-vis their supporters
This is not the first time the first time that the land-lord-tenancy arrangement between the President and the World Bank has been put to question – see here and here
Finally;
Not sure if she’s a banker, but Kenyanentreprenur argues that what Africa needs are development minded dictators since we are not ready for democracy – and i hope we won’t be having this debate in 2012!
My own take is that the people at the Coast, Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western provinces need to start rebuilding their lives and their industries - otherwise they will be left behind. Rioting in your own community is dumb as you destroy businesses that deliver services and create jobs within the community. So pass that message along with any peace & sympathy messages you convey. Also watch NTV's great Voices of Reason program on Youtube that looks at pre- and post-election issues (more on that later). -
Rebuilding Kenya: mini steps
» bankelele Talks are ongoing, marches have been postponed and parliament possibly opens next week - January 15 , paving the way for the country to focus on re-building - but these initiatives can’t begin until a proper government is in place that is seen as legitimate internationally:
Finance: We have companies who have not done business in two weeks, or received their just-in-time supplies - yet they are expected to pay full installments to banks at the at the end of the month. There’s even a mega tourist hotel opened over Christmas in Mombasa! The financial sector will have to chip in terms of waivers and new financing for businesses destroyed. These include;
(i) Debt forgiveness: at a minimum a waiver of installments for three months. Loans can be refinanced and the Kenya bankers association (KBA) to agree on modalities.
(ii) Rebuilding Fund: Last year we had women’s fund, youth fund and another funds is needed, with the support of the international community. Business people should be allowed to re-build in new areas if they are not comfortable re-investing where their businesses were destroyed
(iii) Insurance fund: Since it appears that those whose cars or businesses were looted and burnt will not be compensated by the insurance companies.
(iv) Some form of specific assistance to farmers e.g. livestock, crop replacement, (see a past initiative)
Banks : may be reluctant to chip in, arguing that their portfolios in half the country have been negatively impacted - but since they are about to announce record profits for 2007 their arguments will not be viewed with sympathy.
Employment : Impact will not be seen until about mid-year when companies announce their March 2008 results (they are still competing their 2007 accounts, which were normal up to the end of December, apart form the extended public holidays). The Kiss FM breakfast crew have been vocal about cutbacks if they don’t earn income this month, and this week Barclays has asked casual stuff (who hawk personal loans) to stay home until further notice.
International relations: Mr. John Kufuor is the president of Ghana; he is also the head of the African union. He is no doubt a very busy man, yet his name has been bandied about in a cat-and-mouse, back-and-forth, should he-or not mediate the Kenyan political crisis. Either he is needed or we should not waste his time!
International media: Al Jazeera has become the channel of choice of since local media has instituted some-self censorship of the violence and politicians. But the international media has been found wanting; they have been called biased by BeckyIT while the Police Commissioner has called them gratuitous in desire for displaying morbid images - which they don’t show in covering their own country stories e.g. 9/11 or London bombing coverage. He asks that they adopt the same standards.
Different investor perspective: While local investors fret about falling stock prices, foreign investors may view the market turmoil positively since shares on the Nairobi Stock Exchange are viewed as being ‘over-valued’ compared to their regional peers
Also
Micro finance in Africa: According to list from Forbes of the top 50 microfinance institutions in the world – only two are from sub-Saharan Africa (both Ethiopian).
Finally; parallels in the Cricket world as two giants - India and Australia are also not talking to each other.
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17:52
Blood Lust
» Mshairi Intoxicated by a fleeting madness A triumphant thrill courses through his veins Ears deaf to the wails of desperation Eyes blind to the sight of destruction He hurls the child back inside the blazing church Without a backward glance he walks away Blood lust sated Will he sleep that night? Will he dream that night? Will he dream of victory Of vanquished enemies The stench of [...] -
This is the time
» Mshairi This is the time
This is the time of the whirlwind
The coming of uncertainty
The establishment of arrogance
The occurrence of intransigence
The naming of indifference
The institution of the indefinite
The creation of the unknown
This is the time of turmoil
The beginning of the end?
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Alternative solution for Kenya election stalemate
» bankelele The police are tired, protesters are tired, and many displaced people are stuck and starving as they contemplate rebuilding their lives. The citizens are ready to get started, but the government is not ready to get back. Citizens are out today wishing their banks would open to enable them to start school shopping for next week's re-opening, but the government is the government is still on halt. The presidency is in doubt, and there is no cabinet in place.
Kenyans want to get back to ‘normal’ life and citizens in Nairobi are pretty much trying to do that. Solutions are being worked out, diplomat are talking to politicians, there are peace campaigns in the media – and some of us are fiddling and thinking at home while the fires cool outside.
what are some solutions? Some are not constitutionality possible
government of national unity - this seems to be thee consensus among bloggers and the diplomatic community – But no! We have had that since 2004 and it was about the business of government, not about national unity. Forcing two sides who don't agree, and can't stand each other to sit for an interim period is not going to work
interim government followed by new elections in a few months. These however cannot be overseen by the electoral commission of Kenya. In fact, after the 1982 coup attempt, the air force that instigated the coup were disbanded, and replaced by an 82 Air Force which ran for the next dozen years. Same thing should happen with the ECK. Also what will happen in those few months? Who will coordinate the government? Kenya’ can’t afford to remain in limbo for six months.
my thoughts: In primary school we learnt that there's the executive (president & cabinet) judiciary, and legislature (parliament). Other bodies are the citizens (who voted about 4 million votes each for either Kibaki or Raila) and remain polarized, as are the media and religious leaders. The judiciary is universally seen as not being partial in this debate.
One institution we have intact and legitimate is parliament – whose members were gazetted this week. Parliament to be reconstituted – and they can then vote for the president.
The MP's are our elected leaders and all (but 3) of the countries 210 constituencies have duly elected their representatives for the next five years. There elections are not in doubt for the most part and they are a legitimate group of people, many of them new to parliament for the first time. The vote can be in public or by secret ballot. And surely it will be easier to tally 210 votes than 10 million votes. This can be done in a week at most and will result in a legitimate president for the country.
With about ½ of parliament this would appear to favour the Orange side, but the race is open to all MP's gazetted –not just Kibaki and Raila only. Any MP would be eligible, provided they meet other requirements so potential successors such as Mudavadi, Kalonzo, Saitoti, Uhuru, Karua, and Bifwoli could all run. The election would take a day, be under the full glare of media, and not require the electoral commission of Kenya.
The president elected by parliament - will then form the next government and appoint a cabinet of his liking. His first task of business will be national healing which will include resettlement of displaced persons, rebuilding small businesses affected by riots, relief efforts, rebuilding infrastructure, peacekeeping operations, mending international relations, etc.
The idea stems from novel I read recently, (can't remember the title). Anyway, I'd dearly like to get back to posts on banking and stories like these, but until the politic is sorted out, they are not very useful to write about;
- Diamond Trust Bank: Taking regional banking to Uganda at no extra cost for cross-border transaction
- NIC desperate to go into stockbroking even with an imperfect deal - paid a lot, but don't have full control over stockbroker
-Safaricom extended their cheap calls offer which expired on New Year’s Day to January 15. Many people are still on holiday, some unintended and will benefit from the extended period of ‘cheaper’ calls.
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11:07
Eldoret: The Death of an Athlete
» Afromusing With the situation in Kenya getting even more tense, you realise that it will be awhile before the country recovers. Sadly, when a life is lost, there is a hole left gaping in the hearts of family, friends and even a whole nation.
*Sat in on an interview with Martin Keino of Keino Sports Marketing and Tim of Reuters. Martin had just come back from a meeting to make arrangements for the funeral of Lukas Sang. The funeral will be next saturday the 12th at Kuinet farm. This post is based on the information from the interview.
Lukas Sang was an olympic sprinter who represented Kenya in the olympics in 1988 and 1992, he retired in 1995. He was a tall imposing man, well known in Eldoret for his role in Administration of Athletics as an official, and also as an influential member of the cereal growers association.
What Happened: He was in a car with other people when they went to help a colleague. He was caught up in the rioting that was reported yesterday, and he was hit by a rock on the head. His driver was badly hurt but managed to get away, and later Lukas’s body was found in a slum - Burned. Part of how they were able to identify that it was indeed him was a piece of his tracksuit on the ground. Even worse, is the fact that a dog partly ate his arm.
With the fracas happening at night, no one knows who is who, and it appears he may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.The deaths of people around the country is senseless. Its costs are inumerable and the sooner the leaders resolve this crisis, the better. When Kenya loses an athlete, we lose a piece of our face to the world.
Any message of condolences left on this post will be forwarded to the family. Thank you.
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Elections derail Kenya’s Vision
» bankelele some rambling thoughts to start the new year
It's been a week since the election was held last Thursday and we are in a different world at the beginning of 2008.
Up till December 2007, the focus of Kenya was investing towards Vision 2030 - now we may have to find a new target to aim for – a Vision 2009, which is to perhaps to get the economy back to where it was in 2007.
The coverage by bloggers, Kenyan Pundit, Thinker's Room and others has shown how we have receded from a generational vote (half the cabinet and sitting MP's voted out – some after spending decades in parliament) to the equivalent of a - hate the term banana republic
Kenya has been there before, but was it necessary to go back? To be on CNN and Al Jazeera alongside Pakistan and Zimbabwe? If Ms. Bhutto had not been assassinated, Kenya would probably have been the top world story. This has now happened as Pakistan has reverted to status quo (with an election next month)- while the situation in Kenya has gotten worse each day.
The election was a spark; When one is car-jacked carjacked or caught in a Nairoberry situation, the smart advice, is to co-operate with the thugs – as a car or money is not worth your life. The election created such a feeling of being robbed in many parts of the country, but people fought back. They could not hit at the alleged (and likely) carjackers at the KICC, so they revenged against the agents of their perceived enemy (Kibaki, Raila, Moi, and Kivuitu) on the ground – their own neighbors.
Beyond Politics
From stories about the violence around the country, this has gone beyond any PNU vs. ODM, or Raila vs. Kibaki. It has pitted neighbors against each other, the have-nots against the haves, communities being targeted, revenge targeting, rapes, looting, highway extortion or murder gangs, and others acts verging on ethnic cleansing.
There have been simmering issues in the country – unemployment, poverty, landlessness, jealousy & envy, police crackdown on cartels in slums and the matatu sector, the government crackdown on pyramid schemes that had developed extensive networks of 'investors and savers' in many urban & rural areas, - all followed by opportunistic thieves (looters).
The bloodshed in Kenya is a result of simmering tensions in the country. It has been totally unnecessary, could have been avoided, but the spark/pressure cooker was triggered by the ECK decisions over the weekend.
consumers & the economy
My personal hardships pale in comparison to most Kenyans - but include; no petrol for car, January funds being used to stock up/buy essential dry foods, no fresh foods, no cash as ATM's were empty/unplugged, lack of Safaricom airtime and Internet access (except by cell phone)
We as Kenyan citizens are not used to this – we have a culture of positive self development – that we have to improve our lives by investing, acquiring assets, educate our kids, – which probably informs a widespread government expectation that we will soon have to get back to work, and forget the politics.
But, on a national level, certain industries have taken a hit from which they are unlikely to recover this year (2008) – insurance, transportation, tourism, real estate & mortgages, banking sector, banking, real estate, the agricultural sector, infrastructure, insurance, and thousands of small businesses (SME’),
We can forget about 8% or 10% economic growth for 2008 and maybe the next two years as well. As banks, we tried to persuade companies (local and foreign) to commit to business decisions from October onwards - without much success; now their wait-and-see caution appears to have been the right thing, and they will probably take another six months to recommit. Also, the demand for credit to rebuild, both from the whichever ‘government’ and the private sector is likely to dominate the budget of June 2008.
There's been a dead cat bounce, with some companies making a little money against the odds – Uchumi supermarkets, Safaricom, Taxi's, private security companies, hotels (until they run out of supplies), and soon building & repair companies, but they will be the minority.
we need solutions
But don’t look for answers here:
- Police: They are tired and overworked. They have been on high alert since November tackling electioneering and extra security. They have done their best given the circumstances.
- Violence: does not solve anything
- international and diplomats – they seem to think political leaders have all the answers.
- Politicians: Everyone is calling on political leaders (Raila, PNU, ODM but especially Kibaki) to have dialog as a way to peace. While, as far as I know, no national leader has orchestrated any violence around the country, they are old hands (three years of constitutional war – remember 'consensus building') at sitting at the negotiating table and not resolving issues. They can wear out Nobel Prize winners and the international community with their bickering.
- The USA: As the WSJ story on the violence in Kenya shows, they have a history of siding with sitting regimes after unpopular elections e.g. Ethiopia, Nigeria
- The Kenyan court system
The answer is citizens themselves
Every day this week, I have heard & seen touching stories like these;
- Neighbors talking to one another about maintaining their many years of peace
- Neighbors setting up watch out groups and liaising with the local police
- Neighbors taking in and sheltering friends, relative and strangers
- Police officers talking down residents this morning who had hoped to march to Uhuru Park.
- Local leaders and MP's talking to their constituents – preaching non violence.
- Neighbors standing together and ignoring the sparks from outsiders
I'd like to see the media highlight more of these, but such peaceful efforts may only put such proponents at risk. However today, all th media houses appear to have come out with a joint peace campaign message.
And whatever the outcome from the peace parley's over the next month; I'll make money with a Kibaki win, but I feel that the country needs Raila to lead and tackle some of the serious imbalances in this country. If Kenyans were rated among the most optimistic people in the world in 2003, how do we feel in 2008?
other losers & gains
Losers
- Kenyans; It was sad to watch the pre-elections stories on Al Jazeera and CNN breaking the election number down by 'big', 'populous' tribes of leaders, but the vote outcome showed that we still vote against tribal lines
- Kenya: The image of the country is shot. There are the huge land cruisers racing around Nairobi displaying their MEDIA and RED CROSS stickers and flags that grant immunity and safe passage in trouble spots. And will the Diaspora continue to invest in the country?
- President Kibaki whose 50 year political legacy is at stake
- Former president Moi; his sons lost and what were those ODM Win violence threats about?
- Majimbo proponents.
- The ECK and especially its Chairman whose popularity stemmed from the fact that Kenyans expected him as a righteous, religious man to do the right thing.
- Free secondary education promised by all the parties will likely be shelved, as will many other promises made in November/December.
- Nyerians who are the butt of jokes by their regional neighbors for their incompetence at ‘vote tallying’ (this could either be funny or not – I apologize if you’re offended)
Winners
- Kenya voters who turned out in record numbers, despite overwhelming difficulties, many voting for the first time. Unfortunately many of them have been stranded in the rural areas where they went to vote & enjoy Christmas.
- Safaricom and Celtel until their distribution networks dried up: – I thought Safaricom would be shut down, but it is so essential for communications (police use cell phones more than their call radios) and has kept families in touch. People have used M-Pesa and Mama Mikes to send money to stranded relatives even from abroad.
- NGO’s and civil society. They had become largely irrelevant under the NARC administration, but have become energized by the post-election outcome.
- Former president Moi: the sad events of the past week could have happened in 2003, but he took the mud and the humiliating defeat, and walked away (until recently) - allowing the pent-up emotion in the country to become euphoria and optimism.
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Election 2007 Dec 29 10:30 am update
» Kenyan Pundit First, for all those who took advantage of my time away from the blog to turn the comment section into a space for your tribal-based vitriol - SHAME ON YOU! From reading this blog you should know that I don’t entertain that kind of crap, and my readers have always respected that. [...] -
Election 2007 Dec 29 2:15 am update
» Kenyan Pundit Presidential: Raila 53% - Kibaki 48% - about 7 million votes counted. Both have 25% in more than 5 provinces. Kibaki picked up from Central and North Eastern. Interestingly, Kibaki leading in Nairobi though ODM picking up all the parliamentary seats so far. MP results: - Juja: George Thuo [...] -
Election 2007 Dec 29 12:30 am update
» Kenyan Pundit - For those who are asking - only 3 seats have been announced in Nairobi - Westlands, Langata, and Kasarani. Have no idea what is going on with the rest though violence reported in Kasarani and Kamkunji. - Current tally of seats: ODM 72, PNU 19, Safina 4, ODM-K 9, MGPK 1, [...] -
Election 2007 Dec 28 11:00 pm update
» Kenyan Pundit Stepping out again for a bit. Will be back to keep updating through the night. Latest news: - The presidential race might come down to Rift Valley. Gap between Raila and Kibaki narrowing - Raila leading by about 10% - Ruyenjes - Cecily Mbarire in - Marakwet - Jebii Kilimo in - Matuga - [...] -
Election results update 10:00 pm Dec 28th
» Kenyan Pundit Just got home, quick update. - Chaos in Garsen as Mungatana declared winner despite claims of rigging. Also violence in Starehe and Kamkunji. - Presidential results via NTV: Raila 50.2%, Kibaki 40.9% Raila leading in Western, Nyanza, Rift Valley and Coast. Kibaki leading in Central, Nairobi, North Eastern. Kalonzo leading in [...]
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Who's your next MP?
» bankelele I have met a few MP's, watched several live debates in the last parliament, and lot's of TV over the last five years. What is shocking to me is how different an MP that you know is – almost a two-faced person who's a serious level-headed professional debater in private who schmoozes the private sector and donors in person, and yet gets on TV at a rally and talks like a Neanderthal, insulting opponents from far flung places around the country.
The MP's in the outing parliament who impressed me (yet I don't know any of them personally ) - are people who were always in parliament, debating and active in legislative matters – these include Maoka Maore, Justin Muturi, Martha Karua, Njoki Ndungu, Wafula Wamunyinyi to name a few.
Yet many of them will not be back next March. For every professional i.e banker, farmer, stockbroker, accountant, IT specialist or other professional like Jonathan Mueke who take a first time plunge to make a difference, there are other perennial candidates that they have to run against – and however Jonathan turns out, he's likely to be better than several other candidates who include folk like;
Current MP's: best illustrated with quotes from Joseph Kamotho and Norman Nyagah who after losing party nominations and defecting to new parties - said I must be on the ballot and my constituents love me and I must reciprocate that by continuing to serve them.
ex-MP who feel the cold of being out of parliament. But like a gambler the morning after a big-loss night out, they think they know what they did wrong, set about scraping resources to make another lucky run the next night at the casino of parliament. In real life, they still call themselves 'honorable,' watch their dwindling money, as they maintain political and social networks ready for a comeback. And if asked, they are always ready to deny that they are interested in returning to parliament, but the lure is too easy and they are a sure bit to be in the 'right party' come election time.
Grey MP's: not Grey in age, but these are people who have some blemished reputations – running from dubious financial escapades at Kenya Posts & telecommunications, health care sector, Goldenberg, road construction, public service, collapsed banks, etc. – who go to parliament where they will work to influence the the Public Investments (PIC) or public accounts (PAC) committees (from within) who investigate 5 year old scandals. They are well funded, know how to play (dirty) tricks, and buy their way into cash hungry political parties - since going into politics after a scandal ridden period provides a re-birth of sorts that legitimizes someone who perhaps should be a defendant, not a 'honorable MP'
And once a professional gets to parliament does it matter how they perform as legislators? Maore, Muturi, and Muriuki Karue (who introduced the game changing constituency development fund scheme in 2003) have been voted out of parliament by their constituents this year. The CDF was a good measure of how MP's handled public money as a measure of how an outgoing MP has performed, but I'm sure there are hardworking development minded MP's (e.g. Tuju) who will be voted out for reasons other than addressing and improving the welfare of their constituents.
So by what measure, should we judge our parliamentarians? Many are judged by the handouts they give or how many constituents they can stuff into the bloated government workforce over the five years they are in office. It is wrong, but until the expectations of constituents change, we will remain stuck with the same old folks. Or, as the 2002 - 2007 period showed, you may vote in new cheetah's but they will be old hippos that the same constituents will happily vote out & cheer away five years later.
Random post election questions
- does a president who loses an election remain eligible for the handsome 2002 presidential retirement package if he remains in active politics?
- how many bank loans are likely to be recalled or go bad, given the high number of MP's (likely to be 50%) thrown out by constituents this week?
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Election 2007 Dec 28 2:00 pm update
» Kenyan Pundit - For guys who are asking about Sakuda, no updates as counting has been suspended as I said in my last post due to chaos. - For guys who want more updates - relax - I’m one person doing the best I can on a voluntary basis and with a family that’s been [...] -
Election results update 12:30 pm Dec 28
» Kenyan Pundit Folks this is a historic election by Kenyan standards, regional standards and international standards - I don’t think there is a precedent for the number of incumbents that are going down despite having massive resources behind them and attempts to bribe voters. And I challenge you to find an election in the Western [...] -
Election results update 10:30 am Dec 28
» Kenyan Pundit More provisional results from this morning - Kamkunji -Ibrahim Ahmed over Simon Mbugua - Langata - Odinga 60%, Livondo 37% - Matuga Mwakere 32% Mwanyoha 29% - Bahari - Gunda over Tete - Igembe South - Iringo over Muriungi very close - Baringo North - Kipkorir (ODM) over Kipchumba (Kanu) - Narok South - Ole Lankas over Stephen Ntutu - -
Election results update ECK Briefing 9:00am Dec 28
» Kenyan Pundit Other results from TV stations: - National elections: Raila 64.5%, Kibaki 33.%, Kalonzo 1.7% Western - Raila 68%, Kibaki 31%; Nyanza Raila 90%, Rift Valley Raila 83%, 16% Kibaki; Eatern - Kibaki 61%, Raila 22%, Central Kibaki 98%, Raila 2%; Nairobi Kibaki 49% Raila 42% - Eldoret South - Peris Chepchumba wins [...] -
Election results update 8:15 am Dec 28
» Kenyan Pundit Sorry guys, I had to sleep for a few hours…it’s going to be another long night…and baby KP wakes up bright and early with many storos for me. Only 5% of the results counted nationally. OK, latest results for MP - some big guys gone done and the results confirmed a lot of the “lowly [...] -
Election results update 4:00 am - Parliament results (Kenya Time)
» Kenyan Pundit Thanks for all the supportive comments. Been waiting for some decent MP results for most of the night, because I think they will be far more interesting than the Presidential results and of course because of Mzalendo. Here’s what I have so far again via NTV. Lots of surprises - Kisii, [...] -
Election results update (1) 3:00 am Kenya Time
» Kenyan Pundit Some MP results via Citizen TV: - Orengo leading Mwanga in Ugenya. - Sambu leading Kombo in Webuye - Chikati leading Kituyi by slim margin - Ahmed Shakil leading in Kisumu Town East (Kibaki got quite a few votes here). - Olago leading in Kisumu Town West - James Rege leading in Karachuonyo - Kamanda has a very very slim [...] -
Election results update (1) 2:00 am Kenya Time
» Kenyan Pundit These results are from Nation TV and only 2% of the vote has been counted so far. National: Raila 55%, Kibaki 42%, Kalonzo 3% Eastern: Kibaki 58%, Musyoka 36%, Raila 6% Central: Kibaki 98%, Raila 1% Coast: Raila 60%, Kalonzo 36%, Musyoka 4% Nairobi: Raila 47%, Kibaki 43%, Musyoka 10% Rift Valley: Raila 72%, Kibaki 26% Nyanza: Raila 86%, Kibaki Western: [...] -
Election results update (1) 10:45 pm Kenya Time
» Kenyan Pundit First to address some of the questions asked in the comments: - The missing names situation in Kibera was a result of a split register. This means that voters were reallocated to different areas within the polling station depending on their last name - this is done in areas where there is a high [...] -
Election Day Report (The Vote)
» Kenyan Pundit I voted this morning at Madaraka Primary School. It was my first time voting in a national election, having been out of the country in 1997 and 2002. It was a very empowering process - especially in this election that is going to be a tight one. Despite turning up at 6:15 [...]
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Jonathan Mueke for Westlands
» bankelele if you live in westlands Nairobi, vote Jonathan Mueke today. A good man, a young visionary leader who was my pal in grad school and who can represent the future for Westlands, Nairobi. He's up against bigger, better funded, or connected candidates, but he should be the MP who can make a difference after 2007
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Election coverage 24-12-07 + ODM rally
» Kenyan Pundit First a response to the comments on my previous posts. Thanks to everyone who appreciates the election posts. As a rule I don’t feel compelled to defend what I write about on my blog, but I think it is necessary to reiterate (for those who don’t get it for whatever reason) that [...] -
Election coverage 21-12-07
» Kenyan Pundit - I attended an election observer training yesterday at KNCHR. It was very interesting. This election has the potential to be controversial so everyone is on the alert for irregularities, especially with the persistent rumors that the government is going to engage in rigging. Key concerns [...] -
Stories from Nairobi continued…
» Kenyan Pundit - Nation TV is carrying a really great series produced by Hilary Ng’weno called Making of a Nation. It traces Kenya’s political history since independence. I’ve only caught 2 episodes, but what I’ve seen so far has been fascinating and enlightening - it does a really good job of stringing together various [...] -
In Nairobi
» Kenyan Pundit In Nairobi…without luggage. Again! With a baby to boot! Talk about nightmare. So instead of catching up on politics gossip been busy scouting supermarkets for the infrastructure that is part of travel with a baby from bottle brushes to wipes etc. It sucks, especially when you don’t [...]
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Urban Living Expenses
» bankelele Continuing on the expense tracker series, as well as writing on urban inflation and spending. index
After trying various online expense tools, I fell back and used Microsoft Excel to track expenses by a simple spreadsheet. It's easier because I can work offline to add entries unlike the online offerings - and so far I have five months of data, tracking discretionary spending. These are payments made voluntarily – not statutory ones like taxes, pension, loan repayments of which I have no control.
The numbers
less than 1 %
- other expenses0%: These are various uncategorized or one off expenses that don't full into any category
- Bank charges 0%:There are actually higher but since I am on a flat rate account plan, only pesa point charges appear on the radar.
Recreation 1%: Very low, but I have avoided the golf course so far this year
Education 1%:only registration fees for 2008 and will be much higher next year
Personal 1%: haircuts etc.
Repair 1%: no car service done yet owing to very low mileage over the period (more on that later)
Clothing 1%: Men don't shop for clothes, but this will actual be proved incorrect later
Newspaper 2% - shockingly high. When you realize that you've spent a few thousand shillings on newspapers in just 5 months, the daily habit of reading newspapers seems rather expensive, for information that is available through so many other means.
Communications 3%: Again, men are different than women I'd argue and our Safaricom/celtel costs are much less for men than women in the same occupation. In fact a typical bill airtime unit will be spent as follows 50% text messages, 25% phone calls, 25% phone Internet browsing & e-mail). Cyber cafe charges also fall under this category.
Groceries 3% : rather high considering that groceries/food are not in my docket.
Electronics 3% one off purchases
Utilities 3%: water, electricity can remain low if you know what to look out for and understand/adjust your habits.
Investments 5%: The figure is much higher but this only captures discretionary, not automatic investments and share repurchases.
Dining 7%: like with newspapers, another shocker, because a lot of it is so unnecessary and could be easily avoided and should be reduced.
Drinks7% The reason EABL will over time make more money than Safaricom, and why you should buy more shares. So much of our social life, and networking in Kenya is fueled by a round of drinks.
Co-related expenses
Transport: Early on in the first month i realized that car parking was going to be a major unnecessary expense, while driving to work was sometimes inconvenient (leave early & return late or sit in traffic with 100,000 other cars ) - so i chose to use public transport more - and relax, read, watch music videos etc. and leave the driving headach to others. Also with the increasing cost of petrol (89 shillings [$1.40 ]per litre this week) this week, and with further increases expected, driving is an evening and weekend activity. The low mileage means no car service incurred, despite pestering calls from the garage/mechanic. Results are over the months are Parking 2%, Transport 4% (matatu/citi hoppa/KBS – but also some holiday travel) and Fuel 7% .
Relatives: men don't shop for themselves, but adding up the cost of giving in cash and kind tends to others can add up - and I had no idea it would be this high. Gifts 2%, Charity 4% and Family 5% means 11% is going out - mostly to relatives.
Rent 39% : You could argue that this is not discretionary, but it is and shows why i can't afford a mortgage now, which will cost about another 20% of my funds.
Off to next year, and to capture increased education and recreation expenses some things will have to cut back.
Job offer
From wazobiajobs.com: a job with Cisco Systems as a Global System Integrator Channel Account Manager in Nairobi.
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4th Session of Web for Development
» Mentalacrobatics This morning I am at the Fourth Web for Development Conference at the UN complex in Kenya which goes through to Friday. Web4Dev is …
… a forum for the web community of UN agencies, and international development civil society organizations interested in using their expertise to show how the Internet can promote development.
So Web4Dev is like a BarCamp where UN and government bigwigs turn up. You have a bunch of techies doing brilliant things in techie world, you have a lot of activists, development people, concerned citizens doing brilliant things in the development sector and you throw them together and see what they come up with together. Should be very interesting and informative.
Last night a bunch of us from Skunkworks met with a group of Web4Dev delegates at Pizza Garden. It was one big idea exchange. I heard many innovative ways on how to get more people involved in our online conversation, new exciting things you will soon be able to do with RSS, cooking with grandmothers! Oh and I got to mess around with an iPhone for the second time in 4 days.
Today’s programme at web4dev is full of the usual opening ceremony formalities and expert panel discussions. Tomorrow we dive into the code and projects.
Aside:
Apparently the UN complex in Nairobi is actually in Italy!
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments
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Barcamp 2.0 in full swing
» Mentalacrobatics BarCamp Nairobi 2.0 is in full swing at Strathmore University in the heart of Nairobi. In the first two hours we are discussing everything and anything to do with everything and anything with a technological bent. The final two hours we will focus in on this year’s theme, Innovation.
The short talks cover a wide range of issues (as you would expect at a BarCamp!) so far we have:
- Alex Gakum – Protecting Innovation
- Wesley Kirinya – Schools working with companies
- Edgar Okioga – .net innovation
- Nathan Eagle – Mobile Epemology Apps
- Riyaz Bachani – Demonstrating the One Laptop Per Child laptop
- Valentine Wambui - Call Centre set-up (using Asterix technology)
this list will grow as more people turn up. If you are in Nairobi and reading this, get to Strathmore University NOW (Ole Sangale Road, off Langata Road, in Madaraka Estate. If using public transport, take matatu number 14, which leaves town from the corner of Ronald Ngala and Mfangano Streets and goes directly to the entrance of Strathmore University (the last stop).
We are recording as much of the sessions as we can and will upload them as podcasts.
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 3 comments
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Nominations chaos.
» Kenyan Pundit The nominations process for the December elections were predictably chaotic. I think the guys who’ve been force out by the bigwigs, like Dan Shikanda, will fare well in December if they were able to jump on the defection merry-go-round in good time. No three-piece voting this time around…if you are unpopular you will [...]
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Video Clips from ASK Show Nairobi 2007
» Mentalacrobatics If you want to see the commotion that follows the President of Kenya at its best then President’s Day at the Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) Nairobi Show (now known as the Nairobi International Trade Fair) is the place to go.
The Show lasts one week, each day has a guest of honour, for example the Chairman of the ASK, the Minister of Agriculture and the Vice President. Wednesday, however, is when the real action takes places as this is the day that the President, in his role as Patron of the ASK, is the guest of honour.
The Show is unlike other big presidential events in that it is not a public holiday and it is not a political event. This means that the usual entourage of political cronies conveniently find something else to do. This gives the military space to put on a show at the Show and they do!
Here are some clips from President’s Day at the Nairobi Show this year featuring All Kenyan uniformed forces brass bands encompassing Kenya Army Band, Navy Band, Air Force Band, Police Band, Prisons Band, GSU Band, NYS Band and the Administration Police Band. These clips are from the military tattoo at the end of the day.
The first clip features the lowering of the National Flag and the Playing of the National Anthem. We have a very beautiful, majestic, powerful anthem. The drum major then requests permission from his Commander-in-Chief to lead the bands off the field and they start marching off.
The second clip shows the band starting to march off the field. When the camera moves to the right you see half of the presidential motorcade, moving into position waiting to rush in. When camera moves to the left (with the band at the far end of the field) you see the other half of the presidential motorcade waiting to reverse into the field.
The final clip features the Mass Bands giving the President their final salute and with all the ceremonial details dealt with the Presidential Escort Unit swings into action.
The main part of the motorcade drives into the field, the lead cars reverse into the field from the other end.You can even see the Presidential Press Service cameraman rushing to get his tripod into the PPS Benz station wagon. The President then walks down from his seat and says his goodbyes gets into his stretch Benz and the motorcade starts moving.
The Presidential Escort Unit jog next to the car incase any muppet decides to do something crazy. And then they are off. Being the Show all the top military brass are there and you can see number plates like CGS (Chief of General Staff – the head of the Armed Forces) 00KA01 (Head of the Army) 00KN01 (Head of the Navy) and COP 1 (Commissioner of Police) all joining in the motorcade. Civilian leaders are there you can see a Benz with SNA (Speaker of the National Assembly) and cars with the National Flag which carry Ministers. (The Presidential Limo has the National Flag and the Presidential Standard.) Anyway check out the clip for yourself below.
(Apologies for the running commentary during the final clip – my bro and I tend to get a little bit excited about things like this
oh and it took me ages - bleeding ages - to upload these clips on to YouTube! Like 3 weeks!)© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | One comment
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A random post on Kenya which may touch on politics
» Mentalacrobatics Observation 1
For one reason or another Kenyans find me tribally ambiguous. That is to say when they meet me they find it hard to determine which tribe I belong to. Many times it even goes further than that as people automatically assume that I belong to THEIR tribe. This has led to some ridiculous situations in the past.
For example, when I was a teenager, before mobile phones and txt messaging, back in the day when you actually had to go up to the door or – if we are being honest here- the back door (or neighbours door even) of the house of the girl you were courting in order to let her know that you were there and ready for your stroll around the estate, before you even got to her door, or even the gate of their compound you would have to get past the main gate of the estate usually manned by 3 or more watchmen, from different tribes, all of whom would hustle you for a little this or that as they know they stand between you and the most beautiful girl in the world.
- Watchman A would address me in Maa
- Watchman B would address me in kikisii
- Watchman C would address me in Kalenjin
Then we go to buy chips the guy talks to me Kikuyu; we head to the movies the girl selling tickets would unleash Dholuo and on and on.
In November 2007 this tribal ambiguity means that every once in a while an acquaintance or even a complete stranger will lean in and start sharing with me about how WE need to keep strong because THEY are after US. Or how WE are under attack from THEM and need to come up with strategies to protect OURSELVES. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) when they really want to unleash the latest tribal conspiracy they revert to their vernacular language and I am left nodding away seriously (I play along because I am fascinated at this massive smoke screen of ethnicity that blinds our country). If you want to know what the latest tribal nonsense is just ask me.
Observation 2
There is a copy of a Memorandum of Understanding floating around the internet which claims to be a legitimate copy of that signed between ODM presidential candidate, Odinga, and the National Muslim Leaders Forum (NAMLEF). MOU’s have become notorious in Kenyan politics ever since Kibaki tore up the one he signed with coalition partners before the 2002 election days after he moved into Statehouse. ODM were quick to point out that the MOU circulating on the internet is a fake but honestly you do not need them to tell you that. I refuse to believe that whoever came up with this fake MOU expected it to be taken as seriously as it has. (If you haven’t seen it get it here - PDF 280 KB) (Thanks M4!!).
Section (v) of the fake MOU is pure comedy.
(a) Coast Province shall be henceforth known as Jimbo La Pwani.
(ouwwwwww kinky!)(i) Impose a total ban on open air gospel crusades by worshippers of the cross in Coast and N. Eastern province.
(Throw in no preaching at bus stops and most Nairobi commuters would sign immediately).(j) Outlaw gospel programmes on KBC.
(WOOO HOO no more “Brother Paul” and his fake sermons!)(k) Impose a total ban on the public consumption of alcoholic beverages in Coast and N. Eastern province
(NO BOOZE AT COAST? Wololololololololo. That sound you hear is tourists downing their pints at Voi! Set up a Kiosk on the Coast Province border with a big sign reading, “Last Booze Before Mogadishu, Yemen, Mumbai.”)(l) Quash the recent legalization of mnazi, busaa, muratina, kaluvi.
(How about Kumi-Kumi, isn’t Kumi-Kumi haram too? And Muratina was legalized? I did NOT get that memo jamani!)But the best one, the absolute best one, drum roll please:
(m) Close down Farmer’s Choice in Jimbo La Pwani.
(HEHEHEHE seriously this is apparently one of the conditions of the MOU. That Raila would have to close down Farmer’s Choice in coast. LOL. No sausages in coast! Hehehe. Come on now come on!)But don’t laugh too loudly. There are some people out there who are taking this MOU very very seriously!
Observation 3
Julie Gichuru is my new heroine, not because she lights up news every day, which she does, but because last night when she was interviewing the thief and crook (and parliamentary aspirant and KENDA party boss) Kamlesh Pattni on NTV about halfway through the show she looked like she’d like to do nothing better than punch the muppet in the face. She looked very irritated with “Brother Paul” sitting there talking about, “let he who has no sin cast the first stone.” There are two people in Kenyan public life that make my blood boil every time I hear their irritating voices. Kamlesh Pattni is one. The other is Kibaki’s Envoy of Peace, Moi. I do not know Julie’s political stance but I have a feeling she will not be voting for KENDA. And really it has to be said when you have Kamlesh and Moi rooting for you to win an election there must be something wrong somewhere.
Observation 4
There is an advert which has been airing on KTV during prime time which bangs on about, “wacha domo, fanya kazi” kiswhaili for, “stop making noise(in a time wasting kind of way), get to work”. The ad features no people. You have a black screen with words pop up. Every time a negative word crops up on the screen, such as domo in this context, it is in orange. Every time a positive word turns up it is in blue.
“Kazi Iendelee” is the official campaign slogan for Kibaki’s re-election bid and blue and red are his official campaign colours. So even though no one claims responsibility for the ad during the airing and even though it does not mention any names or political parties, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the ad is Pro-Kibaki and Anti-ODM. I noticed the ad because it is very clever and also because it is the first negative ad I have seen aired on Kenyan TV. (Because something is clever does not necessarily mean it is good).
Earlier this week as I was driving into work at the Ngong Road/Mbagathi Road roundabout I noticed a suspiciously looking characters lurking behind the car. Just as I was driving away he placed something on the back of my car. Again it was cleverly done in that it was placed just as I was moving away which meant that had I not been paying the man special attention I would not have noticed it, and even if I had the flow of traffic behind me would have kept me moving forward. Anyway I decided to follow the roundabout and parked the car further ahead to check what he had put on the car.
A sticker!
With the word DOMO written on it and crossed out (and placed upside down)!
Now I am as easy going as the next fella, but sticking political messages on a car I am driving without my permission in such a charged political environment is just not on. So I took out my camera and decided to go and have a chat with the gentleman in question.
As I approached him I noticed he was handing out stickers to pedestrians so I got a couple off him. I asked him what the stickers meant. He said the stickers were for a campaign. I asked what campaign (this is when he started getting nervous and started looking around). He said it was for a peace campaign. (OOOOOK!) I asked him if he was affiliated to any political party. He said absolutely not. He stressed this. Then I asked him how come his T-Shirt had the Kiswhaili word WACHA in Orange. (Wacha loosely translates as “leave it, leave it alone, don’t”, orange is the colour of the main opposition party the Orange Democratic Movement. Again the message is clear, negative words highlighted in the colour of the main opposition.) He did not reply and started walking away. I asked him who he worked for. He turned around and told me he worked for, The Electoral Commission of Kenya. Before this he was just a guy giving out stickers for a candidate, after that statement he was masquerading as an employee of the ECK on official business. That is a crime.
That is when I decided to pull out my camera and inform him, not ask him, that I was going to take a picture of him doing his work. He told not to take any pictures. I replied that he is in a public street, and claims to be a public official on official business as part of a Peace campaign for the ECK, why would he object to having his picture taken. I also informed him that he had placed his political sticker on my car without my permission and that posing for a picture was the least that he could do. This line of argument did not win him over. Instead he gestured to his colleagues on the other side of the roundabout and they started running away quickly, but not before I took a picture of the back of his t-shirt.
I’ve been timing them every morning since but they seem to have relocated. So if do come across them, let me know!
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 9 comments
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“The truth is opposite…”
» Kenyan Pundit I’m getting increasing media requests to give my opinion on the Kenyan political scene given the upcoming Kenyan elections and Mzalendo. I’m often tempted to say that there’s no point in trying to make sense of Kenyan politicians/Kenyan politics because it is often a tramedy (tragedy+comedy). I think from now on I should [...]
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7:50
Update: Organic Farmers market in Nai - Date change - Dec 15th
» Afromusing Just got an update from KOAN, the event blogged about yesterday is for Dec 15th and not Dec 8th. Thanks!
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CMA Regulatory Nightmare
» Kenyan Pundit Gosh, swamped at work…been to Kenya and back again since the last post and haven’t even had a chance to write about that. Was attending the opening of our office in Nairobi (of course the Nation got it wrong, it’s not 1 billion kshs investment funds, but the total commitment including the [...]
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Random: Tragedy is…
» Afromusing 
Image from forota (one of my favorite photographers, check out his other shots)Tragedy is…running out of Kenyan tea. What to do? Get some English breakfast tea from the local grocery store and dream of pushing a cart in Nakumatt soon. This diaspora life sucks, especially when the weather becomes surly.
Reasons why I am resisting the urge to get an Iphone
1. In the US it means switching to AT&T. I am happy with T-mobile and I am not switching to a network that has less than stellar coverage (just my opinion, the last time i tried AT&T I was in college and couldn’t get signal around my Uni, which was smack in the middle of the city) An aside, why isn’t there a text message plan or package that includes international text msgs? Gosh its 2007 and didn’t Friedman say the world is flat? Why aren’t service plans getting cheaper in the US? As a consumer I don’t really see much competition in that arena…prices are just about the same across the board and It wouldn’t make much sense to get the Iphone without the data plan anyway.2. I would want my Iphone unlocked, free and ready to roam to Kenya or any other place in the world with a GSM network…which is pretty much the whole world. I do not shy away from tinkering with phones, but I don’t think I want to brick an expensive bit of tech then go through a 19 step recovery process
. If it was 5 steps sorta like the grief process, I might reconsider…NOT! Even if you sign a contract with AT&T and ask for unlock codes when you are travelling, something that carriers do for you without batting an eye…not happening, not possible, no way Jose, *hapana (not to be confused with the amazing Bryan Habana!).
I think I would be wiling to pay extra to have an Iphone that i could use in any network though.3. Why buy it when it doesn’t have 3G capability now, and when tested against the RAZR and even the T-mobile sidekick much favored by rappers and a certain Hilton progeny, took forever to open a page in a download race? (To be fair, the comments indicate that it may be faster than reported, but everyone has a reality distortion field around them). Oh as with apple products that are shape shifting, paradigm blasting, fat burning and calorie free there are always rumors. The rumor/confirmed fact masquerading as a rumor is that the Iphone in 2008 will actually have 3G capability and on the horizon the Iphone could even be Wimax capable.
4. The wi-fi capability is nice, but when traveling, good luck finding open networks that wont charge you an arm, a leg and kidney to connect. Special offenders - some airports like O’Hare in Chicago. I do not like paying for wi-fi esp. when its almost 10 bucks for just a few hours. Perhaps i should try Fon again.
Via 69Mb:The Iphone is Kenya bound in November apparently, which network will it be chained to and how much will the data plan for that be? Not clear from the BDAfrica article, probably in the 5000Ksh range like the Blackberries? Carrier specific phones are not a good idea in Kenya, I enjoyed the freedom to pick which carrier i would go with depending on their rates, and I think the Kenyan consumers and all consumers for that matter need to be able to make the best choice of data plans regardless of the hardware.
All this…and i still ogle at the thing each time I see it! Ok, that is the end of my little screed for today.
Btw, Liz Henry is tweeting the ‘She’s Geeky’ UnConference.
DMKW - Diary of a Mad Kenyan Woman is back!!!!!!!!
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Good riddance of bad rubbish
» Mentalacrobatics
Although you may stumble across a few good individuals in the 9th parliament, collectively they were a big disappointment. More interested in their salaries, interest free Prados, health insurance, than they were in the building the nation.
Let us work to make the 10th parliament worthy of our great country.
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments
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Kenyan patriots at work
» Mentalacrobatics I have several reasons to be optimistic about the future of Kenya. One of the main reasons for this optimism is that I am aware that the country is full of patriots, good women and men, intelligent people with integrity who are all working, in their own way in their own fields, to build the country and empower the people of the country. On Saturday the 1st of September I attended two very different functions that illustrated this for me. One function was organised by a group outside the establishment the second function by a group right at the heart of the establishment. Both groups are full of patriots who are concerned for Kenya and the well being for Kenyans.
The 1st of September was the day Kibaki was due to have a presidential campaign fund raising lunch with 1000 people who would each pay KSH 1,000,000.00 (EUR 10,450.00) for the privilege of eating with the president. In response to this civil society under the banner of the Kenya Human Rights Network (K-HURINET) decided to hold a counter event at Jeevanjee Gardens in heart of Nairobi’s CBD to remind the president that most of his fellow citizens would have to work for decades to earn KSH 1,000,000 and can hardly afford to spend KSH 100.00 for lunch amongst other things.
The format of the public meeting at Jeevanjee Gardens was empowering. Instead of having one or two people dominate the gathering it was all very inclusive and equal. In the days before the meeting members of K-HURINET had gone around to various civil society groups to ask them what issues they wanted to highlight on the day. They then printed posters with each of those messages.
At Jeevanjee everyone picked up the poster that represented their position, we all then stood in a circle and people spoke in turn highlighting what they felt was important.
As the representative from the Kenya Human Rights Commission said civil society was not there to speak for people but to give people the opportunity to speak for themselves.
Many more full size pictures are on my Flickr page.
After Jeevanjee I walked across town to the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, a building at the heart of the establishment. In the days of the Moi dictatorship it held the headquarters of KANU, then the ruling party, today it hosts several government institutions such as the Office of the Government Spokesman. On this Saturday it was the venue of Amaranth Awareness Forum organized by the Poverty Eradication Commission.
Amaranth is a fantastic crop full of nutritional and medicinal goodness. It also enhances soil fertility and the stock can be used as livestock feed. Equally as important, it is economically viable.
Amaranth takes three/four months from planting to harvest. That means in one year you can get three harvests. From one harvest from one acre you can earn KSH 25,000.00 – KSH 30,000.00. This means in one year you can earn KSH 75,000.00 in profit from one acre of Amaranth. Compare this with maize and sugarcane. Maize takes 8 months from planting to harvest. From one acre most farmers will earn KSH 25,000.00 which after they have paid their costs comes down to KSH 15,000.00 from each acre per harvest. In one year you will have made KSH 15,000.00 from your acre.
Sugarcane takes 24 months from planting to harvest (theoretically it is meant to take 18 months but in reality it usually takes 24 months.) After those 24 months you will make KSH 90,000.00 if you are lucky. KSH 45,000.00 per year. Once you reduce your costs it comes down to KSH 30,000.00 per acre per year for sugarcane.*
From this it is clear to see why the Poverty Eradication Commission is pushing Amaranth. However, Amaranth is a delicate crop so measures have to be employed to ensure a successful harvest. The commission invited expert farmers to share their experiences and tips with other farmers who were considering planting amaranth or those whose crops had performed poorly. PEC also invited commercial partners to illustrate to farmers that there is a market available for their crop if they did choose to grow Amaranth. PEC was providing an opportunity for people to transform their lives.
Two groups, K-HURINET and PEC. One outside the establishment, the other working under the Ministry of Planning. Both have their critics, both have their supporters. Both working to build the country. Encouraging both groups have embarked on tours across Kenya spreading their knowledge.
There are good people in our country doing fantastic things.
(*These are average figures, yes there are some people who earn a lot more, but they are many more who earn a lot less from their maize and sugarcane.)
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 3 comments
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M-Pesa featured in the Christian Science Monitor
» Kenyan Pundit They expect to have 1 million customers by Jan 2008! Click here for the story.
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World Tea Expo without Africa
» Kenya Imagine Year after year, Kenya is either the world's largest or second largest tea exporter. Although 16 African countries like Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda also produce tea, none of them makes even a fraction of Kenya's output.
Read More Here -
Rising infertility in Kenyan girls
» Kenya Imagine Rebecca Wanjiku pays a visit to the Kiambu District Hospital and comes face to face with a bevy of beautiful young women, all of them in perfect health, except for one thing- they are infertile. She takes us through the tragedy of improper contraception use and the side effects of contraceptives, and the whiplash on a generation of girls.
Read More Here -
No such thing as a Muslim vote
» Kenya Imagine Amir Ibrahim argues that the courting of Muslims by politicians is not only unfair to Kenyans of other faiths, but also dangerous to the Muslim voters themselves as a perception of them as a fifth column, self-serving and inimical to the needs of other citizens is created and reinforced. He also argues that there really is no such thing as an Islamic constituency and pleads that Kenyans come to a universal conception of rights that are due to all citizens regardless of race or religion.
Read more here.
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The twists of Tuju
» Mentalacrobatics In today’s ridiculous news …
Kenya’s burdensome debt to developed countries is partly the product of theft on the part of “previous leaderships,” Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju said in a prepared statement distributed prior to his address to the UN General Assembly …
“I discovered that some of these loans were actually shady schemes, unnecessary pseudo projects whose only objective was to steal that money.” In the case of legitimate projects, Mr Tuju added in his written remarks, “some of the procurements were terribly flawed, and they cost double, triple or many times more than they should have cost.”Tuju would be referring to the “previous leadership” of Daniel Arap Moi.
The same Moi he offered the job of regional peace envoy.
The same Moi he welcomed into Kibaki’s re-election camp as chairman of NARC-Kenya.
The same Moi at the heart of Kibaki’s re-election campaign.
Tuju must think we are cabbages or idiots. Or perhaps he thinks we don’t care either way.
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 4 comments
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The Press Filter
» bankelele A glance at the weekend newspapers shows government departments putting up paid advertisements in the newspaper. These include the permanent secretary - Ministry of Finance setting the record straight on the country’s domestic debt position, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice on parliament’s recent amendment to curb powers of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and even the government spokesman (who’s the equivalent of a permanent secretary) on thetribal balance of the government (through an ad placed in all papers including the Nairobi star)
Of course its’ not just the government that has trouble getting their ‘facts’ out before the media – the Kenya land alliance on the Land Bill, former MP Basil Criticos claiming the government 'grabbed' his sisal farm, the National Bank of Kenya defending the government in the Criticos land sale etc.
With four major TV stations and a dozen newspapers and radio stations, the amount of stories churned out by the media is endless. But with politics dominating most of the media channels during this election year, it is easy for important facts to be addressed by interested parties – and the only way they can be assured that their story will be transmitted verbatim - no editing, slanting, filtering, or even buried by the media - to the public is by paying for an advertisement themselves - at a cost of about 70,000 shillings (about $1,000)
However, there’s a flip side to this. A media story is supposed to be balanced – and by placing a statement in the papers, they are telling their side of the story without challenge, or argument – and without an opposing view, a paid up statement is just an advertisement.
Election briefs
- The Electoral Commission of Kenya has enabled registered voters to check on the status of their vote eligibility online - just by entering a nation ID number or voter’s card number.
- Botswana residents living in Kenya have been invited to register to vote at the country's high commission in Nairobi this month. That’s something Kenyans in the Diaspora can pressure for their local embassies to do for them also in future.
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How does this person get to be a travel writer?
» Kenyan Pundit Via Kenyanentrepreneur, what I wish was atypical but it is not…just outright biased writing when it comes to reporting on Africa ati Nairobi does not have one decent hotel???? Butler? Overflowing, impoverished population? Thank God for the well-meaning white folk who are in a tough struggle to save the giraffes. Someone [...] -
Charterhouse Exposed and other storos
» Kenyan Pundit Hot on the heels of the Kroll Report, Wikileaks has now leaked documents related to the Charterhouse saga. Charterhouse is still under statutory management, while the CBK investigates allegations of money laundering among other things. Three of the whistle blowers who first broke the story are now in exile after receiving death threats. Unlike [...]
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Direct Flights to US?
» bankelele Delta expands
From African Flyer: Delta Airlines (US) has announced new African destinations including - New York to Nairobi via Dakar (Senegal) four times a week
Kenya Airways has toyed with the idea of flight to Miami oo Atlanta for several years
Compe for KQ
There have been a lot of protects from Ugandan about the high cost of flights to Nairobi (at ungodly hours) to connect to other Kenya Airways (KQ) flights – with tickets costing about $340 for the 300 mile journey. Of course short flights are really lucrative in Africa – and Air Kenya makes a killing with their $100 flights to Masai Mara, other games parks, and holiday destinations.
So along comes an Aga Khan backed airline set to begin on the Entebbe - Nairobi route operating as Air Uganda who will begin flights in November.
one of their new planes -
Taxes, IPO's and Unit Trusts
» bankelele Taxing corruption
So Parliamentdealt another blow to the war on corruption by denying the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission with the authority to investigate crimes that happened before it was formed (2003).
KACC as a body has aimed high (going after high profile figures - CEO's, Ministers) but mostly caught small fry leaving many Kenyans dissatisfied and who now consider the Commission to be a waste of money
But there’s another public institution - the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) that has achieved milestones in the war of corruption that KACC can only dream of. They have gone after untouchables, and some lawyers and MP’s have had their accounts and salaries frozen and asset seized. Now if only they could publicize this.
RICO in Kenya?
Why not legislate a tax on corruption, so if you’re named, you could lose 90% of property, leaving the accused with 10%? This is humane, but is as good as taking back everything - and bypassing court processes. Hitting Pattni with a tax bill would end 10 years of court injunction and delays and realize some significant gains in cash recovered.
Kenye Re slipping away
My strategy to bypass the IPO of Kenya Re not working as well as I thought. I placed orders at 13 shillings, only for the share to zoom. It's tempting to buy the shares at 17 or 18 and then the balance when they drop (if ever).
Unit Trust get more accessible
Market leader, Old Mutual, has lowered their minimum entry amount for unit trusts from Kshs.500,000 to Kshs. 200,000 (about $3,000). The offer runs till December 2007.
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Mzalendo featured on BBC Outlook
» Kenyan Pundit I was interviewed by BBC Outlook about Mzalendo yesterday, the questions were great and I think the interview came out pretty well (it’s always painful to listen to myself on radio/tv though). Click here to listen, the story is at the very end.
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Motoring moment: Schools, traffic jams & motor shows
» bankelele motor show
The 2007 Total motor show was held at the Ngong racecourse over the weekend. Of late only the Concurs (classic car show) seems to run regularly, but it was great to have the motor show back after two years where we can always see the latest new vehicles and dream of buying them with Safaricom millions.
Nairobians can also look forward to the Nairobi air show to b held on October 7.
Who's here?: Heavy presence by American brands (hummer, Chevy, Cadillac, Chrysler, jeep), while also upcoming is India (Tata, Mahindra), and China (FAW and great wall)
Also present were several banks (NIC, CFC, Barclays, bank o Africa, and Consolidated) all offering vehicle purchase finance plans
who's missing?: some prominent British (Land rover), and German (BMW, Volkswagen/Audi) brands, and the Kenya Revenue Authority. It’s interesting (and sad) to realise how much tax is paid on new cards – as some car companies chose to display both the regular price and duty free price (which the government, embassies, or national of other countries - Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda etc. pay for the same car)
some prices
Cars
Chevy Optra 1.9m
Chrysler 300C 7 million (only 4.1 million duty free)
Mercedes E class 6.4 million [EUR 70k] (only 3.7 million duty free) [EUR 41k]
SUV
New Pajero 6.1m , older model Pajero 3.3 million,
Toyota Land Cruiser VX 9.7m (5.8m duty free), Land Cruiser Prado 5.2m (3.2 DF)
Jeep grand Cherokee 5.7m [$85k] (3.2m DF) [$49k]
Mercedes ML 8.5m (4.9m DF), GL class 11.8m (6.7m DF)
GH Humvee
Cadillac SPX
Lorries
Mercedes Actros 3340 prime mover8.3 million (only 7.1 million duty free)
Mitsubishi Fuso prime mover 8.2m
Trailer by Randon 2.5m
Buses
actually have the same chassis as lorries, just the upper body is different
Tat school bus (62 seats) 4.9m
Nissan 51 seat (i.e. Citi Hoppa) 4.3m
Mitsubishi Fuso (51 seat) 2.8m
Nissan 67 seat 8m
Pickup
Toyota Land Crusier4.8m (2.8m DF)
schools & traffic
last week has marked the beginning of third term for most schools kids – and the impact on rush hour traffic has mde bad traffic situation even worse – commutes have gone up by 30 min at least each way, and it is often faster to get off the matatu and walk passed a major intersection. The increase is from more passengers (school kids) on matatu's, more school buses on the road, but mostly from parents’ droppings kids off at far away schools across town before cutting back to the office
What would happen if parents were required to school their kids within a certain radius of their homes or offices? And the rule was given a 5 year grace period for investors (or teachers) to get funding (government loans) and other incentives lile land to create quality schools within neighbourhoods? What kind of impact would it have on traffic? There are negatives, but kids would be able to get to school/back home at a decent time (in daylight) or even walk. Parents would not have to make long commutes to quality schools for their kids, and the road would be much clearer even when schools are open. A wishful idea, but totally unenforcable
Gotcha
they finally got to me - halfway at least, almost a year and a half since the last known attempt. There may have been more attempt, but they were probably thwarted by round the clock security and other precautionary measures employed such as tipping night sentries and never straying from safe houses.
The perpetrators took advantage of a rare lapse in judgment and were swift, silent, and deadly in their attack.
The fateful moment came when I went to the bus station to pick up someone visiting the city. As is the case with many such visitors, they believe there is no food in Nairobi so they come armed with several sacks of fresh fruits and vegetables.
So for a few seconds I stepped out o the car (leaving it unarmed and exposed) to help my force the sacks into the boot – and for those few seconds, the car doors were open and the alarm was off.
As soon as I drove off I knew something was wrong – and sure enough when I stopped to check there was a huge hole where my indicator light used to be!
That’s one plague of driving very popular and very common Toyota is their parts are in great demand – much so that thieves are always ready to snatch your mirrors and lights to sell the last motorist who has lost his – and front indicator lights are a prized item that is likely to be stolen anytime.
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Looting of Kenya under Moi
» Kenyan Pundit I’m a bit late to this story…got the link two days ago but didn’t have a chance to blog (hat tip Banks) Kroll Report on grand corruuption under Moi is leaked on Wikileaks (click for all the gory details).
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Kroll report on corruption in Kenya leaked
» Mentalacrobatics Kroll Associates is amongst the world’s leading private investigation agencies. They appeared on my radar when I read fascinating accounts of how the tracked down money stolen and hidden by the Nigerian dictator Sami Abacha, found former Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos secret fortune, they found the money stolen by Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, they found Saddam Hussein’s secret bank accounts, they found Osama bin Laden’s secret bank accounts which are being used to fund the Al-Qaida network. In short, they know how to do what they do pretty well.
In December 2003 I wrote that by hiring Kroll Associates to trace the money looted by Moi and his cronies the Kibaki government was showing that it was taking the fight against corruption seriously. These noble anti-corruption efforts were lead from within the Kibaki team by a guy you might have heard about, John Githongo, who was at the time the Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics in the Office of the President.
In February 2005 John Githongo travelled to the UK to receive a report from Kroll. Shortly after receiving that report Githongo resigned his position as Permanent Secretary giving no reason and stayed in the UK stating concerns about fears for his safety if he returned back to Kenya. At the time I wrote that whatever Kroll told Githongo must have been explosive, explosive enough to make him resign. In February 2006 Githongo released his report, a copy of which you can download on Mentalacrobatics here.
Earlier today part of the Kroll report on corruption in Kenya was leaked to the whistler blowers’ site WikiLeaks.
Some of the information in the report focusing on Moi:
- Assets accumulated included multimillion pound properties in London, New York and South Africa, as well as a 10,000-hectare ranch in Australia and bank accounts containing hundreds of millions of pounds.
- Mr Moi’s sons - Philip and Gideon - were reported to be worth £384m and £550m respectively
- Moi’s associates colluded with Italian drug barons and printed counterfeit money
- Moi’s clique owned a bank in Belgium
- £4m was used to buy a home in Surrey and £2m to buy a flat in Knightsbridge.
The Kibaki government never acted on the report. The Kenyan government official spokesman, Alfred Mutaa, dismissed the report stating, “We did not find that the report was credible. It was based a lot on hearsay.” He said the leaking of the report was politically motivated and insisted Kenya was working with foreign governments to recover the stolen money. “Some of the money is in UK bank accounts. We have asked the British government to help us recover the funds, but so far they have refused.”
Well he would say that now wouldn’t he. Earlier this week Moi endorsed Kibaki for a second term in statehouse.
You can download the Kroll report from WikiLeaks. You can also download it from Mentalacrobatics here (PDF doc 3.8 MB)
Hat tip Mshairi!
(Disclaimer for the conspiracy theorists amongst us: This is my analysis of the situation. I do not have any inside information on why Githongo resigned and he has not shared his reasons with me.)
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 11 comments
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Don’t have KSH 1M? Use your vote!
» Mentalacrobatics There have been many bad ideas during this phoney war stage of the political battle in the race to Statehouse, many. Kalonzo trying to pull a fast one on the other ODM-K presidential aspirants, Jirongo believing Moi would back him for the presidency; young NARC-K politicians thinking the Wazees would let them run the show; Kibaki returning ministers tainted with corruption back into office; Martha Karua and everything she does; ODM going to a delegates convention without proper delegates etc.
However, the worst, absolutely worst idea ever, is this KSH 1 Million (USD 15,000.00) per plate lunch affair that Kibaki’s re-election team is planning for Saturday which is expected to attract 1,000 people. What were they drinking the day they came up with that idea? It is hard to think of a more stupid idea at this time in Kenyan politics? If that wasn’t enough, reports have also emerged of the purchase of nearly 200 four-wheel-drives, the formation of a 300-member team of co-ordinators each earning more than $1,000 a month, and the existence of an ICT team that will see the president’s re-election message flood mobile phones. The only conclusion I can come up with is that there is someone at the heart of the Kibaki camp deliberately sabotaging his re-election efforts and they are very good at it. It serves absolutely no purposes.
What about the money? Kibaki needs the money! Of course Kibaki needs the money. This is going to be the first campaign in Kenyan history where each serious presidential candidate (sit down Dr. Ojiambo) will spend at least KSH 1 billion in the run up to the election. No clever politician campaigns with his own money. So they have to raise money. But anybody who is willing to turn up to a KSH 1 million a plate lunch in support of Kibaki would have given him the money away. It is not like there are hundreds of undecided millionaires in Kenya who were swayed by the quality of warus on the Statehouse menu. So why have the lunch and make a public show of such gluttony? Why deliberately antagonise the 30+ million Kenyans who will never ever see KSH 1 million?
Secondly, because of the nature of Kenyan politics, I can confidently predict that guest list will be dominated by members of one tribe. So after this lunch Kibaki will not only look greedy and completely out of touch, he will also look like the supreme tribalist, which is sad as the vast majority of Kikuyus will never see KSH 1 million in their lifetime. Wasn’t it that patriot Josiah Mwangi (JM) Kariuki (who happened to be Kikuyu) who warned Kenyatta decades ago about creating a country of 10 millionaires and 10 million beggars?
Thirdly, just how out of touch with the man on the street do you have to be to even suggest an idea like this to the president? And how out out touch do you have to be to accept the idea as good? doThis administration’s lack of realists would be comical if it were not so serious. It is easy to see now how these guys believed the draft constitution would sail through the referendum the day before the Kenyan voters told them where to stuff their draft. Just like that arrogant, self belief undid them then, it will undo them here. They basically do not care what anyone thinks and they think that is fine. They move from Ivory Tower to Ivory Tower and never take time to stop and listen.
Meanwhile back in the real world, at the same time as Kibaki and his friends are having their KSH 1 Million lunch, a bunch of us will be at Jeevanjee Gardens, snacks will be served to about 1000 people, although feel free to bring your own, KSH 1 million is purely optional
Karibu!Press release from the indefatigable MARS Group on behalf of the Kenyan Human Rights Network:
PRESS RELEASE ON 29TH AUGUST 2007 - A MILLION FOR LUNCH?OR ONE MILLION LUNCHES?
“Those with money have access to the president … those without have the votes to elect the president”
Civil Society, Nairobi KenyaThe Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has today (29th August 2007) given the OCS Central Police Station notice, under the Public Order Act, on behalf of the Kenya Human Rights Network (K-HURINET) of a public event to be held at Jeevanjee Gardens on Saturday the 1st of September 2007. KHRC has also obtained the necessary consents from the Nairobi City Council and the Friends of Jeevanjee Gardens.
The meeting shall be held from 10.00 am to 3.00 pm. Activities will include a public forum where snacks will be offered to an approximated 1000 people.
Please note that the function shall be preceded by a procession from the Globe Cinema Roundabout to the above mentioned venue. We shall assemble at the Globe Roundabout at 8.30 am and start the procession at 9.00 am
Mars Group Kenya
Media Laison for K-HURINET
Contact Jayne/Fiona
020 3533230
info [@] marskenya [dot] org© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 15 comments
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dorothyduncan
» Mentalacrobatics I love African outfits. I love the bright colours, the fabric, and the unapologetic joy that our clothes scream. It is impossible to wear a fantastic African outfit and feel depressed or low for very long. One look in a mirror and culture picks you right up.
All this makes me excited about the launch of dorothyduncan a business that sells a dare to live attitude and lifestyle though unique and exclusive pieces by independent fashion designers from various parts of the world. Co-founded by Kenyan Dorothy Ghettuba and Mandy Duncan from Guyana, dorthyduncan’s clothes are fantastic.
Equally important is that dorothyduncan seems focused and committed to the simultaneous pursuit of return on investment in three areas - financial, social and environmental, the triple bottom line. It is no longer acceptable to make money at the expense of the community and the planet.
dorothyduncan are currently featuring the Kenyan based design house Kimila Afrika who specialize in making outstandingly beautiful and comfortable Afro-Urban pieces with bold prints and bright colors from the leso/kanga fabric. The challenge for many African designers is the logistics that comes along with selling their clothes. There are limitations like shipping, payments methods etc but dorothyduncan is bridging that gap by being a one-stop shop of African designers.
They are out to build a company and build their community through that company. Social entrepreneurship at dorothyduncan through fashion! (They are also bloggers and members of KBW which makes them amongst my most favourite people!)
Have a look at dorothyduncan and let them know what you think.
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | One comment
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If I were a headline writer
» Mentalacrobatics Tedious, Tiresome, Terrible, Tormented Toro Backs Baks
(Inspired by one of the best headlines of all time.)
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Bank for sale
» bankelele The Government intends to sell a portion of Development Bank of Kenya (DBK) to a strategic investor.
The goverment, through ICDC owns 90% of the Bank which was almost merged with Housing Finance in 2005.
DBK is Kenya's 34th largest bank with assets of Kshs. 3.9 billion ($55 million)
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The dollar, circumcision and AIDS
» Kenya Imagine Readers will no doubt have seen the new American strategy on combating HIV/Aids in Kenya and the wider the region as is reported in the local press (Daily Nation 23/08/2007).
The reason for the change in strategy is said to have been occasioned by the recent studies in Kenya and South Africa that indicate that Male circumcision more than halves the chance of contracting HIV/Aids among males (by up to 60%).
Read more from Elijah Marangu here.
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9:56
Spotted: Catch me if you Kenya
» Afromusing 
From Sunday morning cartoon Timon and Pumbaa.
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Outgrowing Gangsta Rap
» Mentalacrobatics One busy Saturday when I was around 10 years old I was standing in a shop on Biashara Street in central Nairobi that sold food in bulk. Wholesale. I watched as man walked in and proceed to buy 14 (I counted them) cartons of Weetabix each carton holding around 24 boxes of the stuff.
I have never been so jealous or impressed in my life.
All those bars of Weetabix for one guy? What a hero; what a show-off. My mother reassured me that he probably was not going to eat it all himself but was most likely buying stock for his shop but I preferred my vision of him surrounded by boxes of the stuff and having it for every meal.
Back then the most popular kid amongst us was a guy who not only OWNED a proper football but used to dish out free Weetabix if his team won. Unsurprisingly my brothers and I (although on the opposing team) regularly ensured that his team always won in the end. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do! I loved the stuff.
A few years later when I got home and proudly announced to my older brothers that they were looking at the new captain of the school under-13s rugby team I was promptly informed that I can not call myself a rugby captain unless I could eat 8 bars of Weetabix in one sitting using only one packet of milk (around 0.4 litres).
I made it. Just.
I am not sure why I was so obsessed with those brown bars of cereal. I have my theories but that is for another post another day. The strange this a few years I thought back one day and realised that I had not eaten any Weetabix in over 5 years.
I am not sure when I stopped, I just did. Basically I had grown up and, in a way, out grown the obsession. It used to be important, it no longer was.
The point behind my Weetabix story is that as a 10 year I never fathomed that a time would come when my thoughts wouldn’t be dominated by Weetabix. In fact the sole motivation for becoming an adult was so I could eat Weetabix when I wanted without having to ask anyone. At the time it never occurred to me that that would be unreasonable.
That contrasts sharply with my flirtation with “Gangsta Rap”. From the very first time I heard a Gangsta Rap song (probably around 13 when NWA were busy telling us to “Fuck the Police”) I knew in my heart that although I loved this new, brash, in-your-face type of music at the time, a day would surely come when I would look at it with disgust. In fact I used to excuse it to myself as one of the excesses of immature youth. I was young, I was growing up, I was immature and thus, I was allowed to like it. But even then I knew that one day I would just have to recognise it for the nonsense it is. Till then I could go around singing along to Snoop’s DoggyStyle from start to finish and feel only slightly guilty.
And it wasn’t just me. At times it looked like the whole of Kenya had this fever. Every estate had a guy who would could describe the geography of Los Angeles like he was born and breed there, “you drive though Compton, pass Inglewood, and get to South Central” and of course us muppets who had never been to the USA would nod our heads wisely like we were talking about Ngummo, Ngong Road and Kenyatta Market.
I must admit that falling out of love with Gangsta Rap took a lot longer than I anticipated when I was 13. In fact although Gangsta Rap songs were quickly out numbered in my collection by the time I started university it wasn’t until much later the ridiculousness of the whole situation slapped in me in the face.
Live8! Concerts around the world to fight for Africa, MAKE POVERTY HISTORY, wear a white band. Woo Hoo! Simultaneous concerts around the world with the blue ribbon event in London. Now there were many ridiculous things about Live8 and especially the London concert. One was that the organisers constantly turned away African artists who wanted to perform. Instead they were, belatedly, give their own little concert miles away in the Eden Project, as my pal T said, they threw us in the only jungle left in England. OK it is their country. But when even brilliant black British artist such as Lemar were turned away things were thick. So a look at the line up to check out the black artists and who do you come across.
Our good friend Snoop Dogg.
Now as Lola rightly says it is obvious to any rational person that Gangsta Rappers do not speak for African American community, leave alone Africans and all black people on the planet. But when Snoop got on stage at Live8 he had an opportunity to do something, to be somebody. Of course he didn’t. All he did was show case just how stupid this whole Gangsta Rap thing is.
For one he was the ONLY artist as far as I can remember who did not mention Africa at all when he was on stage. Not a word on AID or Trade on injustice, nothing. Perhaps he needs to attend TED Global Secondly he was the only artist (apart from Madonna I think) who could not refrain from swearing on stage. Fuck this, fuck that, motherfucking this.
What makes it even more disheartening is that some of these guys have brilliant minds. You do not pull yourself up from the floor of society to make millions without engaging your brain cells. I just wish they would engage them productively. I was listening to Chuck D talking on the BBC a while ago and he was talking about how he happened to be on the same plane to Australia as 50 Cent and spent a while talking to him. According to Chuck D, 50 Cent is one of the most intelligent people in the rap game today. Yet a few hours later 50 Cent was in front of a large crowd of 50,000 plus people and urging them to all shout, “KILL THAT NIGGA” as he (50 Cent) asked what he should about some of his rivals in the rap game. Now having a stadium full of kids shouting KILL THAT NIGGA is, as Chuck D pointed out, not healthy.
However Gangsta Rap especially in an African context is full of illogic. For one Gangsta Rappers want us to believe that they live the hardest lives ever. Now I am not one belittle another man’s experiences (and having seen inner city Manchester close up for many years I know that “developed country” means a different thing for a crown prince who flies in a private jet to Argentina to play polo than it does to the young kids of Moss Side who do not even have a playing field in their school) but KM has a great quote from a K’naan the rapper born in Mogadishu, Somalia,
If i rhyme about home, and got descriptive/
I’d make 50 cent look like limp bizkit.Mogadishu –v- Compton = no contest.
Secondly, Gangsta Rap sells itself as ghetto/street music but Gangsta Rap as far as Kenya and the parts of Africa I have been to is not the music of the street. That is reserved for reggae a.k.a freedom music a.k.a revolution music a.k.a Roots a.k.a Dub. Call it what you want, that is the sound of the street.
Thirdly, and in many ways the most serious, the disrespecting our sisters. That this has somehow come to be labelled a black thing is the biggest disservice that Gangsta Rap has served on us. In fact the disrespecting of women by Gangsta Rap is one of the biggest signs of male disempowerment in society this world has to offer. Again on the BBC a few weeks ago when this topic was being debated I heard another Gangsta Rapper who apparently is meant to be quite articulate, Xzibit, give the most nonsensical and ridiculous justification for using NIGGA and BITCH/BYATCH etc in rap music. Luckily for the sane amongst us the BBC also had the great Fats Domino in the studio to talk about proper music as well as share some thoughts on just how misguided the youth of today are!
Luckily we have gurus of very good music amongst our midst and even more so good music is everywhere around us in every genre including rap. Personally I have had it with “Gangsta Rap”. I should have stuck with the Weetabix.
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 17 comments
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(Poor) Defence of MP's Salaries
» bankelele In 2003, Transparency International - Kenya published a booklet (PDF here) as a result of a survey they had carried out on Kenyan parliamentarians and the burden of dealing with (paying for) constituents needs – mostly though giving funds
It’s useful to look back on it at a time when the same parliamentarians want to increase their salaries again (because they can and will) the survey consisted of 8th parliament – expenditure of 7 MP's and questionnaire of about 20 others
The survey was done before Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the last salary increase (2003) and found that;
- Of their (then) Kshs. 395,000 gross salary, MP’s typically took home less than 50,000
- 2/3 of those surveyed claimed to spend between 200,000 and 300,000 pr month of their salary i.e. ½ to 2/3 – and it’s interesting that for those who TI tracked, they projected that their expenses would exceed their salary & expected income (TI did not pursue this point)
- Reasons for giving funds: to get re-elected got 3X as many responses as to help people. Longevity in parliament is maintained by being generous to constituents
- Ominous point for Kenya, most - over 2/3 of elections are not closely contested i.e. the winner gets double the votes of the loser signifying the importance of being in the right party. This places the burden on party nominations (see ODM-K, NARC, NARC-K, Shirikisho, Ford K....) which are often not observed, and are less free & fair
- TI Kenya defended the MP's - asking for them to get higher remuneration (to ease the stress and deficits brought on by their constituents requests) and also supported CDF (at that time was only a proposal) But the latter is self defeating because the more the public knows that MP’s have increased their salary, only makes them ask for more from MP’s.
Now today, MP’s have CDF, get funds to set up office in their constituencies, control funds for school bursaries, are off the hook from free primary education (and soon secondary), and have almost doubled their salary from before the survey.
But CDF also helps voters decipher useless MP's who can no longer lie to them that the government was denying them resources to do A, B, C. CDF reduced 'problem solving' but not all since most MP's giving to their constituents consists of individuals and harambees.
So MP's will increase their salaries, because they have to - and can.
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Silent Demonstration on Wednesday August 15
» Mentalacrobatics Journalists will hold a silent demonstration on the streets of Nairobi tomorrow – Wednesday 15th August to protest the controversial Media Bill. Civil Society will also demonstrate in solidarity with the media fraternity. All Kenyans are invited and urged to come and show their support.
The following are the details from the Inter-media committee:
The Silent Demo is on!
The Silent Demonstration will take place on Wednesday August 15, with the blessings and the support from the majority of media houses and associations as well as myriads of well wishers.
We shall assemble 8:30am at Freedom Corner at Uhuru Park. We will then march to the AG’s Chambers (via Kenyatta Ave- Moi Ave- Harambee Ave) where we will present a petition to the chief legal adviser to the Government and ask him to advise the President against signing the proposed law.
We shall then proceed to march around Parliament two times before breaking the demo at Freedom corner. The whole programme should take about two hours maximum.
The demo is silent for there will be no chanting nor singing.
We will actually be quiet through out the march and our mouths gagged with black cloth or duct tape. We can also adorn black scarves, head bands or arm bands.
So please bring along a gag, dress in your organisation’s branded wear [if available], AND remember to put on some comfortable walking shoes.
We are looking forward to your participation and your organisation’s support as we SILENCE this bad law.
NB: Watch out for a spectacular media showing on that day.
Standing as one,
Inter-media committee
Forwarded by Mars Group Kenya
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | One comment
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18:24
Of Interest to Diaspora
» Afromusing MONEY
Last week i happened to catch a great report on NPR about Latin American immigrants preferring to move to Spain instead of the US. Why? Because…Experts say one of the main reasons is the emergence of an entire industry of financial services catering to immigrants.
Ecuadorians are the biggest group of Latin Americans in Spain. And in Madrid and Barcelona, there are shops where they can pay for appliances and have them delivered to an address in Ecuador. One company is test-marketing ATMs that allow users to pay for grocery purchases, medical treatment or cell phones in Ecuador.
Lucia Jimenez recently visited a branch of Mundocredit, an immigrant bank set up by one of Spain’s largest banks. It offers no-commission money transfers and the option of getting a mortgage in Spain for a home in Latin America.
Jimenez said that she is thinking about getting life insurance that she can eventually take back to her native country, Paraguay.
I found this very instructive to Diaspora because remittances to developing countries are constituting a growing percentage of GDP, as evidenced by figures from around the world. Specifically about kenya, from Next billion, some stats
Kenyans in the diaspora are contributing an equivalent of 3.8 per cent of national income through remittances.
In the year 2004, for instance, Kenyans living and working abroad remitted about Ksh35 billion ($464 million), which overshadows the net foreign direct investment (FDI) of Ksh3.6 billion ($50.4 million), which accounted for 0.41 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Point is, there is an opportunity to cater for immigrants in the financial services like the Spanish government is doing for the Ecuadorian immigrants. Its a powerful incentive to bank