Events from the past week have raised the question of whether or not third world people should sever the ties of dependency with their former colonial masters once and for all.
The first group of these issues revolved around the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Kampala. I was vicariously embarrassed by the entire spectacle, Ugandans swarming the darkened streets in the millions to welcome the British Queen and to underline their country's subservience to her throne. It was all a little much.
Read more from John Victor Ogot.
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21:15
Choices, Changes
» What An African Woman Thinks Choices, Changes -
The God Referendum
» What An African Woman Thinks The God Referendum -
Just So You Know…
» What An African Woman Thinks Just So You Know…
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19:53
Two APs Caught Red-Handed Distributing Anti-Raila Hate Posters
» You Missed This 
Plus: Why are Kenyan voters so angry? What impact will this deadly emotion have on post Dec 27th activities?
With just 28 days to go to the mother of all Kenyan general elections, a dramatic and mind-numbing new twist made its’ grand entry into the unfolding drama.
A number of people including two Administration Policemen were caught red handed in Rift Valley distributing anti-Raila hate propaganda posters. And even as this bizarre incident unfolded police headquarters was busy denying that any such posters existed and said that they were unaware of any such distribution, hitting out at Prof Anyang Nyong’o for “spreading self-seeking damage control propaganda”. The folks at police headquarters have now become experts on party propaganda and publicity-seeking tactics and every single statement of denial now includes that pet subject of the police commissioner and his lieutenants at Vigilance House. It will be interesting to hear what they say in reaction to the latest arrests.
Oddly enough the APs confessed to interrogators that they had received their orders to distribute the posters from a superior, actually some SSP (senior Superintend of police) whom they even named.
Even more interesting is the fact that an anonymous reader tipped off Kenyans right here in Kumekucha about the said posters even as they were leaving Nairobi for distribution in Rift Valley...
Read more
The 5 Most popular stories in Kumekucha today-28th Nov
1. What our Luo brothers need to know
2. Mystery behind Raila's sudden popularity
3. Little know facts from the history of the Luos
4. Creative arithmetic of Steadmann polls
5. Was that really Raila on NTV? -
Sahel CEO Says That Raila Is God's Choice
» You Missed This As I publish the views of this Kenyan CEO of Sahel books, let me emphasize that I will also publish any similar sentiments from PNU, ODM-K etc. This blog is not an ODM blog as some of our detractors would gleefully like to proclaim at the slightest excuse. -Kumekucha-
Ladies and gentlemen, the Hon. Odinga is God's choice to lead Kenya.
A race that started in the eighties is set to end on the 27th. The Hon. Odinga has given it all he had...and then more. If you took time to look at the way this race has been run, you'll recall the moments when it looked tough. When it was downright dishertening. When giving up seemed like the easier, sensible thing to do. But the Hon. Odinga shouldered on. His love for the nation supereceded the pull of comfort and bliss. And so as we get ready for the elections, you need to have a rationale for doing so. Here is why you'll vote for the Hon. Odinga.
1. First and foremost, the Hon. Odinga loves Kenya. Ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about a man who is an accomplished businessman, a wealthy individual who could afford to sit quietly in his Karen home and watch Kenya dwindle into total chaos. But he won't. Instead, he's been out there, through the Moi dictatorship and the Kibaki treachery, keeping Kenyans hoping for a better day. He led us to Kamukunji, to defeat the Uhuru Project, to defeat te referendum and brought us the concept of primaries. At last, that day is about to dawn on the land we all love.
2. The Hon. Odinga is a man of the people. I've personally watched how Kenyans in the diaspora...
Read more
The 5 Most popular stories in Kumekucha today-28th Nov
1. What our Luo brothers need to know
2. Mystery behind Raila's sudden popularity
3. Little know facts from the history of the Luos
4. Creative arithmetic of Steadmann polls
5. Was that really Raila on NTV?
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19:10
Measuring the African Blogosphere
» White African If you’re an African blogger, and you’re not yet a part of Afrigator, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Afrigator is an African blog aggregator that keeps you up to date with bloggers across Africa, but beyond that it’s a valuable tool. They provide analytics that allow you to see how many people are visiting your site and from where.
Afrigator Gets Even Better
They have just released their new beta of their service, completely redesigned and with added functionality. I’m extremely impressed with how polished it seems, but that’s to be expected from the guys working on it. There’s no reason for me to do another review of all the changes, those have been covered well by Charl and Marshall.So How Many Bloggers are There in Africa Anyway?
That’s a question that I keep asking, and one that’s hard to measure. Afrigator might give us the best start in finding that answer. I asked Justin Hartman if he would mind sharing what their numbers are by country. He graciously obliged, and you can see them at right.
Because Afrigator is developed (and marketed most) by South Africans the blog count is heavily tilted that direction. However, the rest of the countries are fairly accurate relative to each other. We know that Kenya does indeed have one of the largest populations of bloggers in Africa as does Nigeria. I do notice that there is a lack of North African countries, and I know that there are a lot of bloggers from there.
What I’d like to see is a true representation across all of the African blogosphere. With some intelligent spidering, I would think that Afrigator is best positioned to tackle this challenge.
What we can all do is help spread the word to our other African blogger counterparts and get them signed up on Afrigator, helping to legitimize our region by organization and ease of finding good bloggers in any country.
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What's in a Name?
» You Missed This 
What does your name mean? Or asked differently does your name matter? Well, you better keep the answers to yourself because depending on where you live that your answer can be VERY COSTLY.
A British teacher has been charged in court in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad - a name with 14 permutations in spelling. According to the prosecution her act is an insult to religion.
Matters religion can be very personal and explosive. Many are ready to lose their lives for their beliefs. Well, that enriches the diversity in humankind. Fanaticism and passion are two words that can be conveniently used interchangeable to further one's course. Whether mwalimu Gillian Gibbons is guilty as charged is not for me to charge.
Drawing a parallel on what is in a name you can't fail to notice a muddled version of this case closer home. Most Kenyans form opinions about others on 'controversial' (read political) arguments based on cluster of letters cobbled together to spell a name. If your name is not regionally identifiable and you don't suffer any tonal betrayals (shrubbing) then trust some Kenyan to cleverly enquire about your parents' ancestral home.
Granted religion is something very personal. But it is not that clear cut either becasue in there too lies its predatory traits. Take away personal insecurities (WANTs) the heart is neither vulrenable nor provide a soft landing sermons delivered with furry that often leaves the preacher's mouth foaming. Make no mistake. This is not meant to deny the role prayers/beliefs play in out lives. But at the same time we must appreciate the fact that whoever endowed with grey matter never meant to let us abuse it by being hysterical and hide under dogma.
The Sudanese government have just been handed a gem to hit at the west by escalating a teacup storm. But looked at differently they may be unfairly punishing a teacher involving her students in appreciating a teaching aid.
Mark you these were Sudanese primary school kids aged about 10. Now jjust imagine if this act were to be reciprocated the world over then manyy South American and Spanish men called Jesus would all end up on the dungeon. Well religion is the sum total of faith and TALES clothed in dogma and is personal.
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12:36
NAMLEF release Raila MoU
» Kenya Imagine The National Muslim Leaders Forum has released what it says is the MoU entered into with Raila Odinga. It says the intention and objective of signing the MoU was to safeguard the interests and welfare of a section of the Kenyan Muslims that has undergone atrocities over the last 44 years.
Read more from Tony Gathungu here.
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Opinion Polls and Voter Programming
» You Missed This Guest post by Tom M.
Hi Chris,
I read your interesting take on the Steadman polls (creative arithmetic) and decided to offer a another perspective. I hope you publish it.
Have a nice day
Tom
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Opinion Polls and Voter Programming
The latest SM opinion poll showing convergence in the popularity of the two leading presidential hopefuls represents voter programming at its hilarious worst. It is voter programming equivalent of scraping the barrel.
It's a long story, walk with me to Tena Hq and learn. PNU's original strategy was to use SM to malleate Kenyans into a Kibaki-win mindset by having them buy into the "credibility" of SM polls. The strategy was simple, set Raila up with good initial ratings then whittle them away by gradually cranking up Kibaki's "popularity". It was a no brainer; I mean everyone knew Raila's electability was inversely proportional to the square of the distance from his Nyanza homeland? I mean seriously, this was grown up stuff, not the referendum!
Unfortunately for the PNU brainiacs, Raila turned out to be electable after all. So much so the tide poured across six provincial borders and threatened a seventh! And just when they thought it couldn't get any worse, rogue pollsters firmly buried any notion that Raila was unelectable. Caught between questionable statistics and damaging press, SM opted for "science." They blamed their drastically different poll ratings on a new data collection method "it made the opinion poll "more ‘reflective."
Finally out of ideas, and with panic dancing a frenzied jig at Tena Hq, PNU strategists called in the butchers. It was brutal. Screams could be heard all the way to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics as the butchers got down to work. When it was over, the numbers and computations lay in a gruesome mangled mess, spluttered across tens of pages. Early the next morning cleaners from Normalization Ltd. came and hosed-down and fumigated the pages.
They did their job well, but not well enough, for when the "latest" opinion poll was presented to Kenyans an amazing thing happened; from deep within the muddled recesses of the poll, plaintive cries for help could be heard. For in the midst of the violence and the number-spluttered mayhem that was the SM poll, some original statistics had survived! Their brave story of survival reflects our tenacious spirit and absolute determination to make a break with the past. -
Why The Sharp Appreciation Of Kenyan Shilling Is Not Good News For Christmas
» You Missed This Kenyans in the Diasporas will have to dig deeper into their pockets for Christmas presents, but there is a possible solution.
There are conflicting reasons as to why the Kenyan shilling has appreciated so dramatically over the last few days. There are those who believe that this latest development cannot be de-linked from the forthcoming mother of all general elections scheduled for 27th December, and that some of our politicians are bringing in huge sums of money from secret accounts abroad to finance the last push of the political campaigns.
Whatever the reasons, a strong shilling has so far not benefited the vast majority of Kenyans because rather than prices going down, they have been going up. Not to mention the fact that thousands of jobs have been lost in the horticultural industry and other sectors that heavily relies on exports for their earnings.
Now there is further concern amongst Kenyans in the Diaspora as they contemplate sending gifts home to their loved ones this Christmas. The painful thing is that they will have to dig deeper into their pockets. Estimates show that for every $100 in gifts sent home, the recipients will be losing up to Kshs 400 when compared to the rate just last week.
Fortunately there are certain options currently in the market that will help a great deal to cushion Kenyans on both sides of this Christmas equation—namely those receiving gifts and those sending them.
This is the rather innovative service offered by Mama Mikes that allows for secure and timely delivery of gifts to any remote corner of Kenya. The fee charged for the service is reasonable o that it beats other much more expensive and less reliable options that Kenyans have been using to send Christmas cheer home (like sending friends who are returning home to vote.)
The truth is that times are hard for most Kenyans at home and those who have not been to Kenya for the last couple of years will not be in a position to appreciate just how bad things really are for so many of their previously prosperous Kenyans.
Mercifully during this season of goodwill and gift-giving, there is a chance to bring a smile of remembrance and good cheer to somebody back home.
The Mama Mikes site makes it possible to accomplish this very securely.
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Yours, Wistfully
» What An African Woman Thinks Yours, Wistfully -
So What Do You Really Think?
» What An African Woman Thinks So What Do You Really Think? -
Past Present Future
» What An African Woman Thinks Past Present Future -
Progress Report
» What An African Woman Thinks Progress Report
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1:22
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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0:35
Google, Yahoo Sued For Stealing Names From Tanzanian Tribes
» My Africa Today If you liked our report on the bizarre handwritten lawsuit against Google from a guy worried that his social security number was too similar to Google's name, here's another one for you. Once again, special thanks to Eric Goldman for passing this one on. This time, at least, most of the lawsuit is typed (there are some handwritten parts at the end), though, there are numerous typos. The lawsuit is being filed against both Google and Yahoo by a guy who is apparently being detained by Immigration services in Houston. He claims that both Google and Yahoo stole their names from Tanzanian tribes -- and now they should pay up. Specifically, he claims that Google took its name from the Gogo tribe and Yahoo took its name from the Yao tribe. Conveniently, this guy happens to be a descendant of both tribes. He's merely asking for both companies to pay $10,000 each to every member of both tribes, going back three generations. Simple!
While it is true that many companies are using foreign words (Swahili is especially popular) in choosing company and product names (Kijiji, Joomla, Renkoo, Wiki, Tafiti, Jambo, etc.), both Google and Yahoo have pretty well-documented histories of their names, and the names of these Tanzanian tribes clearly have nothing to do with either one. Not that the guy doesn't try: "The court is now been asked to answer a common sense question: Is "Google" much more related, semantically and lexically, with "Gogo" or with "Googol"?" Once again, the chance of this lawsuit getting anywhere is basically nil (even if they had taken their names from the tribes, which they clearly did not), but as Goldman points out to us: "There is, of course, a serious problem here about the courts getting clogged up with lawsuits brought by prisoners/detainees with too much time on their hands and nothing to do but file lawsuits, and companies having to spend money to stomp out these lawsuits." In the meantime, this seems mighty close to life imitating The Onion।
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