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23:27
Africans less intelligent than Europeans;Lab suspends DNA pioneer Watson
» Kenyanpoet Africans less intelligent than Europeans;Lab suspends DNA pioneer Watson
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21:10
Please Vote For Me
» Kenya Imagine It's election season and the candidates and their parties are out in force putting their case to the public on why they would be best suited for government. This is democracy.
This year, starting October, a global campaign named Why Democracy? will be broadcast on television and the internet. It seeks to ask questions of the global population on their understanding of democracy and their perception of it as a solution to the problems of our times.
Join in on the discussion on democracy and elections.
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18:20
Battle Royale as Pentagon Goes Hexagon
» You Missed This The flood gates are opened as House Speaker Mr Kaparo raised the political temperatures by issuing writs that officially declared the 210 parliamentary seats vacant. And job hunting as we usher in another season of defection with predicatble shamelessness.
The full Orange has expanded and gone Hexa (six) by admitting Ngilu into into its top organ. Meanwhile PNU is dolling out districts at a rate that makes Moi's look like tokens. Old habits are surely perfected by slaves of nostalgia. What with a continuation of creating TRIBALLY-nomenclatured districts like Samia?
Scoring own goal
But Orange family would be better advised not to waste their time on petty envy by attacking each other instead of squaring it with their common opponent. When ODM is not denigrating its sibling as punda, the latter is rubbishing the former's poll superior rating. Speak of superlative self-destruction.
And out of curiosity at the risk of being e-lynched, is the ODM supremo part-time Kenyan or running from without? Even before you shout Chungwa or Kasarai, Tinga is air bound out of Kenya. Phil share with us part of the itinerary, we deserve to know,ama?
Finally, that Tawala Kenya song, was it out of mere excitement, spicing the ocassion or inadvertently scoring an own goal? -
What Is The Electoral Commission Up To?
» You Missed This 
The Electoral Commission has at this eleventh hour adjusted the constituency boundary between Kisauni in Mombasa and neighboring Mvita consitituency in a move that affects close to 10,000 voters.
ODM has gone to court to block the move and as the electoral commission asked for more time to prepare their case, an incredulous High court judge yesterday bluntly told the ECK that they have no case.
Meanwhile in Kisauni there have been demonstrations over the last 3 days against this puzzling move by the ECK. The voters on the ground are very clear in their mind where all this is coming from. They blame the outgoing MP of the area Anania Mwaboza for ganging up with the government to ensure that he is voted back to parliament in an area that is rabidly ODM. Interestingly the part of Kisauni ceded out to Mvita by the ECK is a stronghold of Mwaboza’s main challenger Ali Hassan Joho.
Could this have been one of the reasons behind the recent appointment of a new commissioner who has been practicing law in Mombasa?
I am getting a very bad feeling here.
Reads more
The 5 most popular stories in Kumekucha today -
Story Of Woman Who Loved Two Men Depicts Kenyan Presidential Elections Politics Perfectly Part 2
» You Missed This
Dorothy was now in a real panic. She tried his cell phone again. The mobile phone subscriber could still not be reached.
She decided to send him a message so that when he finally switched on his phone, he may just be able to get it.
PLEASE CALL ME BACK VERY, VERY, URGENTLY-DOROTHY.
Then the real agony began. She was sure that Rai was dead by now. Kib came late in the evening as usual. Naturally he could not understand her mood and got even more confused when she gave herself to him. But it was all mechanical. The way you would go to the toilet for a long call. Her heart was with Rai, if he was alive that is.
She kept her mobile phone on the whole night. She got up to go to work in the morning more exhausted than she had been going to bed the previous night. She was now sure that Rai was dead. He had probably committed suicide. She blamed herself and quietly mourned for him.
What was wrong with her anyway. When women everywhere would have given anything to be with such a sensitive man as Rai, she had rejected him. Look where it had landed her, she chided herself repeatedly.
The call came in at 9:45 when she was in a meeting.
Read more
The 5 most popular stories in Kumekucha today -
The President’s Lawyer (Kenya Betrayed)
» You Missed This 
And then she thought about her speech during Bob’s funeral service – trying to hide her tears - and her pain - because she had believed to owe it to him and their life together not to show her real feelings in front of the public…….
So she had said in her own mother tongue:
…. Your Excellency the President. I am not going to speak in English and I ask you that you bear with me if I am not coherent.
But first of all I would like to appeal to all peace-loving Kenyans and all those who are gathered here to please keep the peace. As the wife of the man lying here, I am pleading with you with tears in my eyes to please let us send him off in peace.
Because he was a peaceful man. He loved his country and if you genuinely love him as you say you do and as I do, I appeal to you with tears. Please! Please! Let us be peaceful.
Do you agree with me? Please, I beg you, let us give him a good send off.
My husband was a good man.
I lived with him for 25 years. I got married to him while I was at the University of Nairobi. He did not let me finish my degree work but I have no regrets because what I learned by living with him is more than I would have learned if I would have been at the University.
Read more
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12:54
this post does not fit into twitter, although..
» Kikuyumoja's realm …it isn’t that much longer than 140 characters.
Ok, enough with that IT humour. What’s really funny is that I just saved a link to an interesting story to my delicious account and forwarded it to a friend of mine at the other side of the globe - only to realize that he had already saved the same story 11 minutes ago on his delicious account.
AOB: a) I wish there was some sort of an iTagger plug-in for the “eZ-Publish” CMS. ; b) all tags on flickr/ipernity images - are they stored in an external index file, or rather within the meta section of the image file itself?
Seesmic (.com) - interesting new video platform with ads and, more importantly, an online editor. Broadband - here we come!
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Shirikisho Divorces PNU Before the Wedding
» You Missed This Even before President Kibaki's shadow disappeared from the TV screens, the Kenya political theatre is alive with plenty of acts. Shirikisho has bolted out of PNU as Kombo sent all the civic bosses packing.
And what a preamble to a potentially action-packed next 60+ days? Well, we haven't seen anything yet. The political theatrics we have witnessed perfected by our scoundrels for leaders ni kionjo.
Theatrics in earnest before the race
Shirikisho may have opted out of PNU to retrace its steps in attempt to remain politically relevant. What with its baby Majimbo being weaned and trumpeted loudest by competitors outside PNU? The next few days will see more heavy weights drifting in the Kenyan political landscape like a rudderless ship lost in the doldrums. Kamata kamata........
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8:44
The Seven Wonders of England
» For Love and Money The Seven Wonders of England
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The Test
» You Missed This Here, I share with you my own personal experience when my wife and I had to take the HIV test three years ago.
The Pastor made it very clear to us that, as a prerequisite, we had to go for a HIV test before we got married. The results of the test would determine whether the church would marry us off or not. If either of us tested HIV positive, then, that would mean the end of the journey to conjugal bliss.
That was three weeks to the publishing of the banns. Never had there been a harder time in our lives than at that very time. The task that we had to accomplish was almost daunting.
Our minds were abuzz trying to figure out our pasts: had we slipped in our earlier trysts? And if so, had we contracted the HIV virus? What would happen if the tests confirmed our worst fears?
After lengthy deliberations, we decided that taking the test was the only way of either confirming or allaying our fears.
The next day we headed to a Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) centre that was in town. We were received cordially, and, after the preliminaries, we were ushered into a room where a counsellor was waiting for us.
I’ll never forget the cold chill that ran down my spine when I entered the room. I felt like a cow that had entered an abattoir. My face was flushed and my lips felt dry. I tried to compose myself to no avail. The feeling I had could only be equated to the feeling of an accused man feeling guilty before being pronounced so.
With a warm smile, the counsellor led us through the counselling session which included questions posed at us and explanations she gave for the questions we asked her.
Then came the question: “Are you ready for the test?” My wife-to-be and I exchanged glances and, almost in unison, we said, “Yes.”
We were led to a room that was adjacent to the office. This was the ‘testing room’. Blood was removed from the big veins in the crooks of our arms. Then we were told to wait in reception while the tests were made and results processed.
The fifteen minutes in reception were an eternity to me. There were a number of magazines on the table. I took one of them in the pretext of reading but in real sense it was to camouflage the fact that my mind was in turmoil. All manner of wild ideas and thoughts were doing their rounds in my head.
“What if I am found to be HIV positive, what will become of my life? What will come of my wedding bid? What will people say and how will my parents take it?” My head was spinning. My mate was going through the same motions.
When our names were mentioned we jumped up in unison almost leaving our hearts on the seats! The counsellor, with two spring files in her hands, led the way into her office. We followed suit, our steps almost faltering.
Once inside the office, she asked us to be seated. With a disarming smile playing on her lips, she told us that she had the results. Our hearts missed a beat.
With the precision of a marksman, she opened the two files and looked into them. At the back of our minds we knew that the contents of the files held the key to our fate.
She looked at us and, as she was about to say something, she stopped and cleared her throat. Was that hesitation? We felt the air in our lungs being forced out.
“Both of you are HIV negative. You don’t have the HIV virus. Here, have a look at the results.”
For a split second we could not believe our ears. Then we stood up, with tears of joy coursing the breadth of our cheeks, hugged each other and thanked the counsellor profusely.
As she handed us our result certificates (the key to our marital bliss and ‘happily-ever-after’ story), she quipped, “These results are very different from the ones that show academic qualifications. You can depend on your academic certificates to open doors for you tomorrow i.e. the qualifications don’t change. The certificates show the skills you have acquired. The results you have received today, on the other hand, can change at the flash of lightning if you don’t take care of yourselves.”
Read this poem that encapsulates the advice of a grandmother to her carefree grandson who does not care two hoots about Aids.
You can contact me at this Email Address. -
Glorifying the Inglorious
» You Missed This Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why some of the vices we stand on the roof tops to discourage are the very ones we contentedly sit down to watch on TV (to our detriment, no doubt)?
We grin, laugh, smile and purse our lips when we watch steamy love scenes and passionate kissing courtesy of the manifold soap operas that grace our sets. What would prevent a teenager from experimenting with what they watch?
During the day we rebuke immorality, promiscuity and other such ‘vices’; in the evening it is served hot (on TV) for us to savour and join in the fray. Why this ambiguity? What message is being delivered to the multiple audience stake holders at the end of the day?
The soaps ‘teach’ us that having multiple sexual partners is alright as long as you have the money to keep the ‘relationship’ going. They also aim at making us believe that divorce is the sure-fire way of dealing with issues in marriage. Patience and perseverance in marriage are no-go zones according to these programmes. (Remember The Rich also Cry, No One But You of yesteryear and the many others that have come after them?)
Western mentality is being slid down our throats (without our noticing it) through these programmes. We open our arms to welcome their insidious notions and ideals. We try as much as we can not to miss watching them.
I know of a certain woman who sulks the whole evening if she is ‘disturbed’ as she watches her favourite soap. When her husband wants to talk to her or asks her for food or bath water she gives a thousand and one excuses just to make sure that she watches the soap without missing any action. Talk of disrespect and disregard!
And to think this is just one woman out of the many others who do even worse things in a bid to pledge allegiance to their favourite soaps, is just sickening.
Where are we headed if this is the status quo? I dare say, homes are crumbling and disintegrating thanks to the aforementioned. Though their story lines are very interesting and spellbinding, there is a dark abyss under their seemingly harmless façade.
You can contact me at this Email Address.
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7:18
waiting
» stranded in me i have never been patient. All my life try as i may patience eludes me. well, we were to get results from mnet yesterday, that didnt happen. the jury is still out on whether or not mnet will produce my story. there were 30 entrants, so far we're in the final 3. this particular story has come a long way, i played around with it and when it started to take some form i was soooo excited, iremember telling(pal o mines) about it. Anyways by the time i was entering it for the mnet competition only 1 friend of mine agreed to read it and give me feed bck which i really needed. its interesting to see how far it has gone. i continue to hope for more. hopefully the next time i'll be blogging about it we'll be in pre production.
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The 9th Parliament is finally dissolved and the drama begins
» You Missed This 
After many calls to the President to dissolve Parliament, he finally dissolve the 9th Parliament yesterday after signing some bills that were passed this month i.e. Finance Bill and the Employments Bill I talked about in a recent post, read here.
By this dissolution the real battle for the next government begins, we have been entertained by all manner of launch by the presidential candidates and their parties, PNU, ODM, ODM-K and KPP. Though the parties with presidential candidates are four, the race is said to be mainly for three. Notice parties in this election prefer three letter parties compared to those in 2002 NARC, FORD-K, FORD-P and KANU. Could be three is a lucky number in this elections and I hope it will be Kenya’s 3rd liberation like it has been said.
Our outgoing MPs in this parliament were well paid, we now wait for the house speaker Mr. Francis Ole Kaparo to officially declare their jobs vacant for them to re-apply for their lucrative jobs. The vacant positions are 210 posts but he will be sending 222 MPs home (12 were nominated). Just like previous elections, the posts have attracted applicants from all walks of life to the variety of parties. These positions are so lucrative such that applicants don’t mind paying high non-refundable nominations fees proposed by the parties.
Now is the time for interesting defections, politicians who had not defected will hop from one party to the other, some will stick to their parties. From the trend that has been the case in the past months, the party or parties that will suffer most is the President party PNU and its affiliate parties. The party that has been more on the receiving side is ODM and I imagine more joining them now.
The main task for the parties now is to organize nominations for the candidates who would stand on their parties for the 210 constituencies. There are also a number of posts for councilors for many wards. It will be tough and I hope it will be done in a democratic manner not like in the past.
After the nominations there will be more defections or fallouts. Those who do not win in the nominations will try their luck elsewhere. Some will remain with their choice parties even after loosing nominations, in the hope of being nominated by their parties after elections if they are lucky.
We now wait for ECK chairman Mr. Samuel Kivuitu to announce elections date. I can only conclude that Kenyan politics is an interesting drama that leaves people in suspense as to what will happen next.
Enjoy!
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mobile blogging, part 1.5
» Kikuyumoja's realm As long as part 2 on mobile blogging is in the pipe (blogging…as in “publishing content online”), check out this story on the “Mobile Journalism Toolkit“.
An impressive setup with the right, self-made (!) add-ons to improve the N95’s performance. Now I only wish Nokia would improve the firmware on the N95-1 and even add some extras to the S60 browser.
(note to myself: i should become a journalist so that I can get my hands on fancy gadgets instead of saving my mbeca for these gimmicks..)
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0:12
End of Parliament
» bankelele The 9th Parliament is over, paving the way for general elections to be held in December 2007.
NTV Reporter Robert Nagila had a nice piece on NTV last week about the 222 vacancies in Parliament – terming them among the best jobs in Kenya. [A member of parliament gets 5 years security of tenure (while no CEO job is safe when profits fall), and millionaire status guaranteed from an annual salary of about 10 million shillings ($142,000) a year - higher than most developed countries]
Professionals of all sorts are lining up to win the seats this year - including one constituency with over 40 candidates.
Looking back over the five years past, this parliament was doomed in the public mind when upon entering the house they immediately raised (almost doubling) their salaries. And as much as they blame the media for carping on each and every salary increase, it struck a nerve with many poor Kenyans.
So, long before the government got its act together to tackle civil servants, teacher and police and other workers salaries, MP’s had already taken care of their welfare, and continued to do so as a ritual.
And for the good work they did on passing procurement and sexual offences bill, conducting a credible investigation on Anglo leasing, and constituency development funds, and 60 other bills those were overshadowed by the inter-party bickering, lack of quorum (even during passage of some said bills) and needless salary hikes. It has been estimated than over ½ of them will not make it back to parliament in 2008, and for that we hope to have a more sensible crop of leaders.
What worries me is that all the MP’s I have personally met are sensible, smart people who are professional with degrees, but when they enter the parliament a herd mentality seems to take over and you see the same people on TV spewing childish taunts and obscenities at their opponents and perceived enemies.
For more read the light and the intrigues of parliament
Other Pro’s
- high self awareness
- Can lump even more personal bills onto the tax payer by accepting a useless assistant minister’s post.
- You get to sign a whole page in any visitors/condolence book (instead of one line)
- Can use the prefix “Honorable ___ ” long after you leave parliament
- groupies
Some drawbacks
- Getting there is expensive and dirty which scares away many decent people.
- Vehicle to parliament is called a political parties which has no purpose these, but they have to be paid to secure a certificate.
- Low public esteem.
- But the public/constituents, still expect MP’s to fund them since they are multi-millionaires
- Stalkers
other opportunities
most from the weekend papers
Acumen Fund Fellows: New York, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, India, Pakistan, D/L is 24/10
Barclays Africa Leadership Program
IFC investment officer, infrastructure advisory. D/L 2/11
Managing Director at KCB Uganda . Apply to recruitement@kcb.co.ke by 5/11
Business writers at Nation media group. Apply to hrrecruit@nation.co.ke by 30/10
Associate editor - business at the Standard
Other management vacancies (several each) include Kenya Airways, National Bank, National Oil Corp of Kenya, Safaricom and the Kenya ICT Board (but no web site)?
Kenya petroleum refineries (14) trainee refinery operators apply by snail mail
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