Courtesy of Demosh (Flickr)

Anyone have any more enlightening info.?
EDIT: This blogger has more names.

Not so funny when it is your country. All indications from everyone I’m talking to is that corruption is back to Moi’s brazen levels - KPC/Triton is just the tip of the iceberg.

And what in the crazy hell is Kimunya doing back in government?

It gets worse. Julius (Baba Denis) Sunkuli is the new ambassador to China.

An aside…I’m really tempted to support the Media Bill when I read our terrible newspapers. This gem from the Standard:

Konoin MP Julius Kones says the elevation of Uhuru, who holds a degree in economics and political science from Umhurst University, US, to the Finance portfolio could trigger major realignments in PNU.

Umhurst? What exactly do newspaper editors do in Kenya.

More here.  

Caroline Mutoko of Kiss FM and Mwalimu Mati of Mars Group Kenya are among those who have this morning been arrested at the Nyayo National Stadium, Nairobi. The two have been taken to the Langata police station. 60 other Kenyans are also being bundled into waiting police vehicles and it appears that it is planned to distribute those arrested in various police stations across the city.

The urgent help required is: legal representation, cash bail for each person arrested, tracing and visiting all the arrested at the various police stations where they have been taken, lobbying for their immediate release, and any other help you are able to render.

It would be great if other Kenyans could wear the same t-shirts in solidarity with your fellow Kenyans who are doing more than just complaining about MPs. Visit Sukuma Kenya for details on where to purchase the shirts.

UPDATE: Other activists have been released, but Mwalimu Mati and his wife Jayne Mati the directors of Marsgroup Kenya, have been charged with incitement to violence on the specific instructions of the Minister for Internal Security.

UPDATE II (Saturday); 1. Mwalimu Mati of the Media Analysis and Research Services (MARS) Group and his wife Jane remain in custody at Langata Police Station Nairobi…they have not yet been charged (at which point they could apply for bail) more than 24 hours after their detention…we are deeply concerned that the intent is to hold them for no apparent purpose up to the maximum of 48 hours.

2. Fred Odhiambo of Bunge la Wananchi was just brought to Langata Police Station from Nyayo Stadium, where he’d been detained overnight. He has been badly beaten and has just been moved to Nairobi Women’s Hospital for treatment, still in detention.

3. Four colleagues in Garissa remain in detention for simply trying to present the Provincial Commissioner with a memorandum.

WHERE TO BUY SHIRTS: Right now they are available at Mars Group offices, 1st Floor
Chevron Plaza, Limuru Road (Parklands near the Aga Khan Hospital) for Kshs 500 a shirt (the money is used to subsidize printing the shirts that can be distributed for free to those who can’t afford the shirts). I’m wondering whether someone can help them set up an online store to sell the t-shirts? Other advocacy materials including video that you can help circulate are availalbe at the Partnership for Change website.

Brought up a Catholic, my childhood was disrupted when two of my school years were spent evacuated away from city life in London to rural Newton Abbot in the County of Devonshire. My Christian upbringing continued, installing the belief that God monitored my every action, including my thoughts. Schooling in those days also emphasized the fact that the sun always shone on the British Empire.

Read more here.

Musing through recent events, the apparent suspension of the ongoing mediation most of all, some questions are impelled on one's consciousness. Is there something (beer voucher to Ken Opalo for setting off this train of thought) to Chinua Achebe's thesis that the poverty of our leadership is the main obstacle to African progress?

Participate in this open thread here.

Please text incident reports to 6007, kindly include the location where you are texting from. The information will appear on Ushahidi.com. Kindly pass this along to everyone in Kenya, particularly in the rural areas. By and large coverage of the situation in Nairobi is extensive, but we need information from the rest of Kenya as well. Thank you for your support.

I spoke with a young web designer by the name of Amanya about his thoughts on the presidential candidates and their commitment to ICT in Kenya. A few minutes into the conversation i decided to record it, and he was gracious enough to let me. In the video, Amanya points out the disconnect between the leaders and the youth. The fact that the youth have embraced technology and internet, yet the leaders are still talking about polytechnics which provide skills training but not the computer literacy needed to compete in the age of globalization and digital pervasiveness.
You might notice that while i was talking to him he had a cellphone, with which he was checking his email

Just to give you some context, if you send an email to the Kenyan government, business or otherwise, you will also need to send a certified business letter by dhl or messenger. Even then it takes a very long time for them to get back to you.

In the end, what is delivered is a cross between a leaflet for a raffle (there is a plasma screen to be won), the National Enquirer and a 32-page edition of Rupert Murdoch's the Sun. The success of the paper will hinge on the ability of Quarco and his group to bring KISS's brash in your face and controversial style to newsprint, a moulding of the respectability that money allows it to pretend to have, with the talent for throwing mud that the gutter press has buffed to a glint.

No one in Kenya can claim that they and their family are completely safe from Mungiki, but the leaders whose job it is to protect us are busy posturing to save their necks, both physically and politically.