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21:08
Stock Market Practice Makes Perfect Trades
» For Love and Money Stock Market Practice Makes Perfect Trades
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18:58 The Violent Roots of Kenya’s Crisis: Part 1
» Kenyanentrepreneur.com This article was forwarded to me. It’s got a lot of historical information on the genesis of the land problem in Kenya, which I don’t think a lot of people know about. So, look at it as an opportunity to brush up on your knowledge of Kenya’s history. On the night of 13 August [...]
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14:33
Annan Conditions Kenyans for Bad News
» You Missed This So Kofi Annan will tomorrow deliver some form of SIGNED agreement between ODM and PNU yet the talks have been adjourned to Monday next week? That statement leaves more questions than answers. Solving the paradox doesn’t require the brains of a genius.
Annan is taking his responsibilities seriously. He knows the whole weight of Kenya rests on his shoulders and any vacuum for speculation will open the floodgates for another round of bloodbath. The good diplomat has therefore enlisted his experience and knowledge to condition an expectant nation for devastating news tomorrow.
The truth of the matter is that Annan will NOT announce anything worth the label news or breakthrough. Granted, Kenyans have been through hell these last five weeks and HOPE remains the only treasured asset in their souls. I have been labelled an alarmist by simply reminding my dear countrymen/women of the grim prospects in these talks given the principal’s past.
Truth never mutates and speaking it does not make you a doomsayer. The talks have predictably failed the way Kibaki and his cronies planned. Annan is only giving himself time to exhale and consult further while throwing a straw at Kenyans to keep them afloat. Annan is a polished gentleman. He promised us good news in less than 72 hours and so he had to give us something to ruminate after the talks flopped.
Rumour therapy
The intensity of international pressure in the last two days betrays any hope of a truce. Behind the stern warning and threats from the UK and Switzerland lies intelligence pointing no deal. Bush would never send Condoleezza Rice to Nairobi to beef Annan’s efforts if a deal has been reached. Add to that the sight of Kenya armed forces and GSU taking strategic positions in potential trouble spots and you get a peep into the impeding chaos.
Substituting optimism for reality in the face of a crisis is to unwittingly court a heart attack when the truth finally hits home. The two words are NOT synonymous and CANNOT be used interchangeably especially on anything involving Kenyan politicians. Annan is simply conditioning us for bad news.
The script is that when Annan finnally reports NOTHING substantive tomorrow, the national disappointment shall have mellowed thanks to 24 hours window for speculation and rumour therapy. How I wish this was only a bad dream.
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12:55
BONUS: How to Discover Your Mission in Life - A Message from Marcus Garvey and Tony Robbins
» The Displaced African Enclosure: [download]
Bonus(Part 3??) in the series: How to Discover Your Mission in Life and Use It to Make Money
Rest of the series:
1) How to discover your mission in life (part one)
2) How to discover your mission in life (part two)
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What Happens Next After PNU Hardliners Render Annan Peace Mission Stillborn?
» You Missed This Breaking News: Troop Movements Worry Kisumu Residents
It can be authoritatively revealed that three members of president Kibaki’s part cabinet and his two close advisors have made it their business priority to ensure that the Annan led mediation to resolve the post-election crisis is still-born. Sadly, one of the cabinet ministers is the PNU Team lead negotiator of what is now known as the Kenyan National Dialogue and Reconciliation Team. These unpatriotic individuals represent the interests of powerful business cartels which supported Kibaki’s re-election campaign and those which dread the prospects of transferring government operations into the office of the yet to be created Prime Minister, even worse when the holder of this office is one Raila Odinga. What is interesting is that some of these hardliners including the cowboys in cartels whose interests they represent form up to two thirds of those who have received letters from the US State Department about imminent asset freeze and visa bans.
The Minister for Justice & Constitutional Affairs Martha Wangari Karua and her Transport and Finance colleagues, John Njoroge Michuki and Amos Kimunya respectively are the main stumbling blocks in the mediation efforts. Unlike other members of cabinet who have to seek appointments before seeing President Mwai Kibaki, these three individuals have unhindered 24-7 access to Kibaki and have variously advised the president to adopt uncompromising positions that end up undermining international attempts at mediation. To begin with, after ODM rejected their insistence on local mediation, they are said to detest use of the term ‘mediation’ and prefer ‘negotiation’. Secondly, they are directly responsible for the failure of President Kufuor’s mission earlier in the crisis to bring the two protagonists together. Other efforts they have successfully frustrated include that of retired African heads of state as well as that of Desmond Tutu. Kimunya is so confident that he has dismissed threats of donor aid freeze by assuring kibaki ‘over 90% of the Kenyan budget is financed internally and our Chinese friends will never let us down in our time of need’.
The other two individuals responsible for the deepening of Kenya’s worst quagmire in independent history are his long-time golfing buddy , Joe Wanjui as well as the State House based PS in charge of Strategy, Stanley Murage. The former is the ‘general’ who brought in Amos Kimunya into Kibaki’s inner circle and campaigned for his appointment as Daudi Mwiraria’s replacement at the Finance ministry. On his part, Murage has in recent weeks had ‘minor’ problems with respect to fighting his detractors at the hill, but that appears to be water under the bridge as the man has outmaneuvered his and still remains in his influential position at state house. These two individuals have repeatedly urged Kibaki to totally reject all international intervention aimed at resolving Kenya’s political crisis saying that there is a government in charge and it has everything under control. They opine international intervention is akin to admitting that PNU government lacks legitimacy and to an extent allowing foreigners take control of Kenya’s sovereignty. International pressure and the fact that government has not had total control in the country appears to have forced Kibaki to accept Annan’s mediation mission, but that now seems to be under serious threat from the hardliners.
After half-heartedly accepting Kofi Annan’s mediation mission, the PNU have adopted a strategy in which they intend to concede as little ground as possible to ODM in the on-going talks least of all agree to a transitional government under a grand coalition.
This probably explains why Martha Karua was quick to send a protest letter to Annan after he told Parliament that a "grand coalition" could oversee reforms in Kenya to pave the way for elections in two years. Karua’s letter went on to say "My team is alarmed at some serious inaccurate statement made by your excellency.” Forming a transitional government to prepare elections "has not been discussed or agreed upon" in the mediation talks, now in their third week and nearing the deadline fixed by Kofi Annan at the start of the talks.
In other words, political observers and diplomats are interpreting the protest letter by Martha Karua that PNU are not ready to make any concessions and still stand by their belief that Kibaki is the duly elected president of Kenya after having won presidential vote fairly and having been constitutionally sworn-in, and should therefore not have to share power with ODM under whatever circumstances. So what is next for this country?
While Annan sees a grand-coalition as the only workable political solution to Kenya’s crisis, PNU are trying to push the argument that the move is like introducing single-party dictatorship through the back door.
Meanwhile, interesting news from Kilaguni Lodge (unknown location my foot!) where the mediation team is based, say that ODM have demanded that the coalition be crafted in terms of parliamentary strength and that ODM should therefore have 55% of cabinet seats while the rest share 45%! Interestingly, Kibaki’s heir apparent and the hardliner’s choice to inherit Kibaki’s mantle KANU’s Uhuru Kenyatta has been quoted as saying he does not have any qualms with a grand coalition government arrangement.
Anyone with their ears to the ground in Nairobi must have heard that the mediation talks are doomed to fail and residents are being urged to stock-up now to avoid next week’s violence and inconveniences of street protests that will break-out following the announcement of the postponement (diplo- speak for failure) of the mediation talks.
What follows after this announcement will disappoint a lot of people…….
(to be continued as we monitor events and pray for this country)
Stop Press: Kenya Crisis Talks Adjourned To Monday
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9:06
Thoughts, Tips and Tools for Bloggers
» White African 
Here are some thoughts, tips and tools that I have found useful, and thought other bloggers could benefit from as well:
Allow People to Contact You
Please, make it easy for your readers to contact you personally. They might have stories, pictures or thoughts that could help you out. I’ve seen way to many blogs with no way to contact the author, leaving it up to the reader to spam your comments section. If you don’t want to display your email address, use some type of contact form plugin on your blog.- Those who are using Blogger (blogspot) or WordPress.com can just activate it within the service.
- If you’re using WordPress on your own site, consider the Enhanced WordPress contact form plugin.
- Want to make your own contact form? I suggest setting it up through Wufoo, it’s brain dead simple and free.
Getting Readers to Come Back
Make it easy for people to follow your writing. Almost every blog has some type of RSS as part of the structure, however you can make it even more user friendly by doing the following:- Most people don’t know what RSS is or how to use it, so allow readers to signup for updates via email. Personally, I use Feedburner and just activate their tool. Simple and well done.
- WordPress has an incredibly nice little plugin called Subscribe to Comments. This allows anyone who leaves a comment to get pinged with an email when another person does the same (if they so choose). I’ve seen this really reader interactions.
Useful WordPress Plugins
Be proactive and get ready for problems before they happen. Whether your site gets hacked or you’re finding that you’re being overloaded by traffic, here are a couple WordPress plugins that can help:- WP Cache - for when you’re getting slammed by traffic. Think KenyanPundit.com in the middle of the Kenyan election debacle, or if your story gets on a site like Digg.
- WP Database Backup - I have this setup to auto-save and email me the file each week. This saved me when my hosting service was hacked this last summer.
Anyway, I hope some of this stuff helps, I know it’s helped me over the years.
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8:13
Valentine’s Gift
» bankelele As a rule, I don't partake of this day. But to all the female readers, here’s a flower for you - which is a gift forward from Oprah’s site: You can download a free e-book of Women & Money, by personal finance guru, Suze Orman. The offer is for this day only and ends in the evening (US time)
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Nairobi Mayoral Polls: ODM Pentagon, City Councillors on Collision Course
» You Missed This Breaking News: Troop movement worries Kisumu residents
Out-going Adopt-A-Light MD Esther Passaris (pictured) has caused considerable discomfort in political circles following her abrupt resignation as Adopt-A-Light MD and her declaration of interest in the Mayoral seat as ODM nominated councillor in the Nairobi City.
It is now an open secret that she has powerful friends in the prestigious ODM pentangon who want her to be elected Mayor of Nairobi City and this has given her enough confidence to resign from a successful private company she founded six years ago.
However, it will not be smooth sailing as it now seems it will take the ODM captain’s personal intervention to get Passaris elected as mayor. This is because , in what will be sweet music to PNU’s ears, ODM’s elected councillors have publicly announced they will NOT cast their votes in favour of a nominated councillor for the mayoral seat. ODM’s councillors have in a rare show of unity already nominated Baba Dogo councillor Godfrey Odhiambo Majiwa to run for the seat.
On her part, Passaris has already dismissed claims that elected councillors were uncomfortable about her candidature terming it healthy democracy within the party. She added that the city needs a mayor who will ensure accountability, transparency and service delivery to its residents. These have to be implemented along the lines of ODM’s manifesto and the pre-election pledges of its presidential candidate.
Pressed further Passaris stated, “As ODM, we have to work as a family. We are not going to be divided, if the (elected) councillors decided that they want one of their own, then as Esther Passaris, I will back that candidate because we must put the city first.”
“To become a mayor of this city,” she added, “one has to have an all inclusive vision that takes care of the city.”
Passaris pointed out that Margaret Kenyatta – the city’s only female mayor - was successful during her stint because ‘she had absolute government backing and had a lot of donor funding’. Kenyatta served from 1970-1976 and is credited with spearheading the construction of city hospitals, school and several housing projects.
Passaris has intimated that her proven business skills are what Nairobi residents needs and it is high time they got what they pay for. She has been a long time city resident herself and has worked with slum dwellers - in various projects - within the city by helping them light up the areas they live using floodlights. Passaris also introduced a laudable policy at her company of rehabilitating street children and offering them employment in maintenance of street lights.
The Mayoral polls are due on 25th February 2008. -
Breaking News: Troop Movements Worry Kisumu Residents
» You Missed This News just in this morning from the Kumekucha man on the ground in Kisumu indicate that for almost a week now, there has been movement of Kenya Army soldiers through Kisumu headed towards Kakamega and Busia.
Our man counted three Kenya Army trucks this morning all packed with soldiers. It would appear that the troop movement is being staggered in such a way as to attract as little attention as possible.
We cannot speculate at this time as to what this troop movement means. Kumekucha is however still consulting experts on these matters and I will update this story later in the day.
PNU Mischief In This Blog
Meanwhile persons believed to be supporters of PNU have over the last few days been up to some serious mischief in this blog. Cutting and pasting old posts in the comments area, they have convinced many that Kumekucha is about to be shut down. I can confirm that the comments have NOT been posted by either Marianne Brinner or the Okellos. In fact at one point posts attacking both sides were posted from the same IP address. The comments have almost had the desired effect of provoking both the Okellos and Marianne Briner against each other.
I appeal to readers to disregard this mischief even as I take further action on this.
Interestingly this comes hot in the heels of an effort at duplicating the design, look and even address of this site to create a clone site that had mostly PNU propaganda. This effort fell flat on its’ face and the perpetrators were forced to change the site into a members-by-invitation only blog, meaning that most of the public they seek to influence with their lies are not able to access the site. The reason was probably because the ceators of this site had not thought through their action and suddenly found themselves in a very embarrassing position where everybody could see “their dirty work.”
I appeal to all Kenyans of good will to be extremely cautious at this time because a wounded lion is very dangerous. My belief is that PNU supporters are in exactly that position now and this is the time when they are bound to resort to the dirtiest tricks.
P.S. We have so far been unable to confirm rumours of heightened police and military activity in Nairobi suburbs. Many of our readers have bombarded me to confirm these reports.
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2:01
Mushy! Mushy!
» My Life is...Mochalicious! Love is in the air……One Country One Love! Yes……St. Valentine’s Day is here with us yet again! This year I would like to wish all my fellow Kenyans HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY. Love Peace and Unity in this trying time in our country’s history. Without much further ado…..here are some love songs to set the ball rolling: Paul Young - Love Is In [...]
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