The mooted Grand Opposition is staring its demise even before deliver thanks to tried and tested TRIBAL wars. The self acknowledged ambitious Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba is a marked man. The unanimity that claimed Kimunya’s head is no more and every MP has regrouped into their respective safe TRIBAL BLOCKS. Hitherto active supporters of are finding new bearing in their fellow tribesmen. Ababu must have overestimated his resolve and enthusiasm to be consistently vigilant. He has been told that Uhuru is untouchable and he must never make the mistake of assuming that Jomo Jr. is political feather weight Kimunya.
Only in Kenya do whistle blowers promptly acquire tribal tags that relegate them from the hunter to the hunted. The zeal exhibited by MPs Jamleck, Mbau and company betrays their timidity (or was it steadfastness?) during Kimunya’s censor motion in parliament. The law being an ass must be applied to the letter. ECK has proved Uhuru broke the law and only latent support of impunity can make you look the other way and back the DPM. You cannot break the same law you swore to uphold.
Security in number is a lame and laughable defence when caught pants down. More over two wrongs never made a right. Let Kajwang carry his won cross -no need to organize rally in Mbita or having Nyanza Mps cover his back. And if he is proven culpable he must grace the same shame, RESIGN. Reducing Ababu’s resolve to show consistency in seeking good governance and accountability to shoe size only goes to what length our petty politics has degenerated by readily trivializing weight national issues.
Rotten fish syndrome
Impunity is a cancer that gnaws at the heart of good governance and must be fought with every tool available. Uhuru’s nomination of 13 PNU councillors instead of the legal 7 while truncating ODM’s 12 to 11 is the height of political arrogance that can only be supported by incurably disingenuous apologists. an abomination in reflection to good governance. Exceeding the number stipulated in law is not discretion as UK want us to believe by declaring that he did nothing wrong. As discredited as it is, the same ECK that declared Uhuru winner of Gatundu South seat must be respected. You don’t respect the law by trashing it and becoming an authority unto yourself to nominate cronies outside the ECK list.
Reminding Ababu that Uhuru is no Kimunya is to suffer the curse of unlawful monarchy. The truth be told Uhuru was only the bidding of his boss. What do you expect from a desperate prince waiting for coronation when his duly-elected king breaks the laws of the land by openly stealing an election? The fish rots from the head and no attempt at trying to deep fry the body will salvage the stench. Meanwhile it will be a waste of valuable time to seek a vote of no confidence in Uhuru. The best way forward is a shame impunity by degazzeting the excess councillors. Ababu must soldier on in showing new leadership that is chronically missing among the dinosaurs. He may be unpopular right now but he must know he is speaking for the silent majority out here.
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17:01 My 4 Hour Work Week Journey: Target Daily Income
» The Displaced African This is day 7 of My 4 Hour Work Week Journey. Please make sure you read the rest of the articles that came before this one to understand where I am in the journey. Click here to buy a copy of the 4 hour work week and go on the journey with me.
The part that you and I have been waiting for. Over the past 6 days we have set up the foundation. Today we put a dollar sign on the destination and get into the most compelling part of my 4 hour work week journey.
Before I get started to be fully honest by this point, emotionally I am so over going through this journey. But I thought, even though my emotional reserves might be running on empty, better to put out something and keep going than stay put and so I hope you guys appreciate that as you read this.
Questions and Actions: What Do You Want to Be, Do or Have? How Much Will IT Cost Per Month/ Per Day?
1) What would I do if there was no way I could fail? If I were 10 times smarter than the rest of the world?
I have already covered this in the following posts:
What if You Had One Year Left to Live? The Bucket List
8 Things I Would Like to Do Before I Do Before I Die & Meek Meek Meme
How to Take Africa from Zero to Hero: Entertainment!
My Story as an African Immigrant:Part five
The Rules of the Timelines
Tim proposes we create 2 timelines of 6 months and 12 months and in these two timelines put:
a) 5 things we dream of doing having and being over these two time periods
I am unclear as to whether Tim meant 5 things in total we want to be, do or have or 5 things we want to do, another five we want to be and another 5 things we dream of having. Therefore I opted for the latter.
In addition to that, I don’t intend on doing all these things concurrently and some I may not even end up pursuing because of time constraints.
I have limited attention and focus as a person and intend on doing all this stuff, one at a time. That having been said it will probably take me years to go through this list.
6 Month Timeline
Here are snapshots of my timelines
Within 6 months I would like to be:
Bodybuilder: I admire the discipline of Arnold and other elite athletes, including my friend in the army. Well chiseled individuals worth emulating would be folks like Tyson Beckford and Shemar Moore.
Emotional master: This one is probably one of the ones that few folks will relate to. As I said in 8 Things I Would Like to Do Before I Do Before I Die & Meek Meek Meme , I would love to have complete emotional mastery and be in control of the ebb and flow of my emotions.
From this place of control I would love to experiment and see if I can go seven days in a peak state without experiencing negative emotion.
Not negative events or circumstances but where I am such control of my emotions that I am able to redirect the energy from these events into positive energy without going through negative emotions.
What I like about this goal is that I have never seen it done and don’t even know if its possible. Let me strongly suggest that if you have the stomach for it, you at least set one “unrealistic goal” like this.
Successful Internet entrepreneur: This one has a few parts:
a) I want to be the preeminent blogger in some corner of the African blogosphere and be the “go to guy” for advice on some aspect of African life and am still wading through to discover which area/ areas I should focus on.
b) I want to become a marketing and systemization consultant. I want to travel the world helping Africans make money or systemize their businesses or create cashflow sources so that they can live better and we can up our expectations and the amount of spare time we have so we can have significant, tangibe impact on Mama Africa.
Therefore I want to study the work of Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy, Michael Gerber and W.E. Demming to become the preeminent go to consultant on high leverage tactics for cash flow creation a.k.a. Mr. “Give You More Money and Or Time”
Networker: There is a networking group where one needs to pay about $120,000 annually to get in. Apparently this gives you access to some of the upper crust of Western society. I want to understand how the world truly works so I can have the greatest impact I can: I want in.
Within 6 months I would like to have:
A Tesla Roadster: Google it and drool! It runs on electricity people! Electricity?! If not, I’d go the way of BMW with their hydrogen models that are currently marinating or go for anything that doesn’t aggravate humanity’s impact on the environment (if I have enough time to run and bike anywhere I need to go, that’s not necessarily a bad thing).
Bodybuilder’s Build: I want to get the aesthetics out of the way early so I can focus on the true substance of experimenting and testing out to find the best diet for me. I want to experiment with raw veganism, acid-alkaline diets, green diets and as many “natural” (no supplements or additives or anything that’s not coming straight out of the ground) eating systems as I can. I understand that when someone is eating well, their natural state is to wake up buzzing and excited. I want to see if that is true.
Custom made clothes: I want to build my own textile manufacturing project somewhere in Africa, where WTO has completely shafted the local textile industries, and begin creating my own custom made clothes, not just for myself but perhaps for sale. I would love to have “the Displaced African” as a clothing label someday.
Membership site: I want to have my own online tutorial site where I teach Africans something. If this 4 hour work week journey succeeds, this might be what I teach….watch this space.
Within 6 months I would like to:
Dance championships: Train hard enough that I qualify, maybe even win some global hip hop championships. I like to move, but yet I suck at it. What better way for me to challenge and extend myself than this?
Take a trip round the world: Depending on how successful this blog will be at the time and the community built around it, I would love to travel the world with a tiny camera stopping by reader’s homes and chatting. How cool would that be? A lot of beautiful women, cool cultures and lessons all over the world too.
Radio theatre: When I started this blog, I knew that someday I wanted to experiment with radio theatre and creating my own online radio show. Again, how cool would this be? Watch this space! In the meantime check out the BBC African radio theatre shows from a few years back: they are what inspired me to do this.
Interview untouchables: The two untouchables who come to mind, whose brains I would love to pick to find out how they can sway a crowd, control a crowd and hook them when they speak would be Anthony Robbins and Dwayne the Rock Johnson.
Learn African languages: I want to learn all African languages I will have time to learn starting with my own native tongue, Kikuyu that I hardly know, branching out to Kiswahili (good Kiswahili not sheng which by this point is really its own language), then move on to learn all Kenyan languages including Luo, Taita, Kamba etc. Then Southern African languages and so on and so on and so on……I have just realized I have never seen West Africans speak in anything other than fluent and Pidgin English…hmmm, why is that?….
12 Month TimelineWithin 12 months I would like to have:
My own clothing label that redefines fashion and hair throughout the continent of Africa and pumps money back into the local economy
My own apartment in the city: Right next to the beach and somewhere where I can work, find piece and have fun with my friends on weekends.
My own African media empire that completely revolutionizes the way Africans think about themselves. Refer to:How to Take Africa from Zero to Hero: Entertainment!
Within 12 months I would like to do:
Meeting with the president of Botswana: I would love to interview him and the ruling elite of Singapore to figure out what these folks are doing right and perhaps replicate that in other parts of Africa.
Starting my own small theatre company that caters to an upmarket crowd: I love acting and performance and all aspects of moving people. I would love to just take a long period of my life and just dedicate it to acting and putting together good pieces of artistic work.
Creating my own music album which is a collaboration with artists from all over Africa and being featured as a world class dancer in music videos throughout Africa: A Pan-African album where I work with everyone including Afro-latinos, African Americans, heck Maoris, Aboriginals and just put out a good album. Just because it’s been done before doesn’t mean I don’t want to do it. Has it been done before?
Recording the history of Africa and exploiting it for today: I think I have already spoken about how strongly I feel we as Africans need to not only record our history and heritage as different tribes but also begin to incorporate the wisdom of year’s past into everyday life.
I always use this as the example: the Luo and the Ashanti’s approach to death appears to be way healthier than the Western approach to death (If you don’t know what those approaches are, then I want to record all that and make sure you know).
Within 12 months I would like to be:
One of the greatest forces for political good in Africa
World class classical and modern day singer and dancer
World class speaker and motivator: Like Anthony Robbins, the Rock and Barrack Obama all rolled into one.
Relationship expert: Way too important to leave to chance is what I always say. Pretty fun area to learn more about too.
The Best of Both Dreamlines
What four dreams or goals would change it all? Within each of the timelines, highlight the 4 dreams from each column that would be the most exciting to pursue
That statement is quite vague to me and so what I ended up doing is taking 4 things from each of the timelines drawing them from the being, doing and having categories. Among the things I selected from the stuff listed above are:
6 months
Emotional master
World class performer
Join the exclusive mastermind group
Bodybuilding
12 months
My own clothing label
Studying the histories of Botswana, Singapore and other countries that have done quite well economically to figure out what they did right
Become a world class blogger, Jay Abraham, W. E. Demming, Dan Kennedy, Michael Gerber business expert and help African businesses create cash flow.
The Cost: The Target Monthly Income / Target Daily IncomeLet’s talk numbers:
My target daily income is $3000 a day.
For more information on how I arrived at this number I created a lengthy private video that walks you through some of the steps I took. Please note that I use the terms Target Monthly income and Target Daily income interchangeably but I have no clue what my target monthly income is, all I know is my target daily income:
Now that we have quantified the end of this journey: let’s hit the ground running.
To ensure you don’t miss a single moment of my 4 hour work week journey, subscribe to the site via RSS or email.
Here’s to our collective success,
Mwangi
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15:31
Vertical Farming, A Radical Vision For Africa?
» dkFactor The Africa of the very near future is plagued by multiple problems. Desertification and global warming are some of the biggest, which are further exacerbated by rapid urbanization. This spontaneous migration of people from rural areas in countries that have no urbanization policies in place, means resources will be stretched to the maximum. Where will all the food to feed these people come from?
Try and imagine growing food in tall buildings with a self-contained climate powered by renewable energy. A radical idea yes - but one that would address the need for arable land and year-round supply of food. These towering greenhouses immune to weather and pests might very well be the source of nutrition for generations of the future!
While I feel that this fantastic future 'might' be a pipe dream for now, our grandchildren might be forced to effectuate it by inevitable circumstances.
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12:03
Tim Mwaura Takes the Slam Poetry Title
» Kenyanpoet Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}On Friday 11th July, 11 slam poets were at
Dass Restaurant ready to battle for the much publicized slam poetry competition. Poetry fans had thronged the place by 9.pm, the scheduled start time for the slam. The place held more than the recommended capacity as half the crowd had to stand at the back (near the bar counter) as all seats were occupied.Neema Ngwatilo started of by warming the stage with her legendary 'Goat Meat', a piece that always showcases her prowess in stage performance and her ability to take the audience into her journey of this delicacy(which is off course a deep piece about more than just goat meat).
The event emcee for the evening was Imani. Blaze was behind the scenes making sure that we got the best of underground hip hop and Neo soul music ( I didn't know Guru had such great music).
Soon after Imani welcomed the crowd and gave a brief of the evening and basic rules of the slam, the first poet, Dennis Inkwa came up to the stage. His piece on the many women who came into and out of his life, left everyone in tears of laughter. He has this thing with accents that he seems to have perfected and it worked very well for his performance. However, being the first act, the judges were a bit reserved in their scores and so he was not able to make it back on stage.
The next slam poets were, Sad, James with a piece on matata, Tim, Black Skillz, Number 8, Obaladan with a hilarious piece on his 'Mujojo', Afiya, Kawira, Eudiah and yours truly, N.W with a piece on 'Matatu Culture'
Only 6 slammers (they should have been 5 but there was a tie) were able to make it to the 2nd round:- Tim, Obala, Blackskillz, Sad, No.8 and Kenyanpoet(the only lady to make it to the next round, but do I say)
The final round was between Tim, Obaladan and No.8, Tim Mwaura came out as the Slam Champion with 28.5Points beating his closest opponent with only 2 points.
It was an evening full of fun although the rules for the slam were not followed strictly. It was however a great start as there will be other such slams held every end month. The aim; to come up with the 'Kenyan slam dream team' that will go on to start the concept of slam in countries where WAPI has presence (Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria etc)
For me, like the other slam poets, it was a chance to gauge oneself in all aspects of content, flow, stage presence, crowd involvement and guts.
I can promise you that Tim will not have it easy in the next slam (that’s a challenge to me). All those who came for the event felt that it was an evening well spent and most signed up for updates on the next Slam Poetry event. Keep it here for info on the next Poetry Slam event.
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9:49
Numb3rs
» tHiNkEr'S rOoM Browsing through my contacts the other day I came across the names of my good friend Bill (Name hidden to protect the guilty). The saga of Bill is one that even today fills me with great amusement.
Bill is the kind of chap who unlike the rest of was possessed of the gift of the gab. If there was one thing Bill could do it was talk, and talk well. A career in sales was just what the doctor ordered for our Bill. Bill could and did sell motorcycle tyres to people on foot. Bill sold pork chops and sausages to devout Jews. He sold sides of beef to vegetarians. I have little doubt that Bill could convince Lucy Kibaki to purchase the East African Standard.
Which brings me to the meat and potatoes. Bill replicated his successful sales funnel in the field in his affairs with the daughters of Eve. His large phone was ever beeping, tweeting and chirping with text messages and phone calls.
As with all generous men, Bill took great issue with the imbalance of eligible men vis a vis eligible women, and took it upon himself to make up for the difference. Selflessly sacrificing his time, he could (and did) entertain and sample the charms of up to three women at a time. I once watched in stunned amazement the master at work on two date simultaneously in the same eating establishment where with the dexterous use of rolled up sleeves convinced both his dates that his occasional absences from the table were to attend to a patient that was unwell in a back room. Bill never shied away from discreetly introducing a MD to his title.
”Like a wolf in a fold” are words that will always have special meaning to me after seeing Bill hard at work on Sundays. Bill’s unassailable logic, with which I heartily agreed, was that wifely material was simply not available at the Simba Saloon at 3 in the morning. It was however, more likely to be found at Corpus Christi at 12 AM in the morning, and so after a hard night at the Simba Saloon dance floor Bill rushed home, showered, shaved, grabbed his dog-eared bible (dog-earing was done by Bill’s devoutly Catholic mother) and within an hour was singing “Ave Maria” with the same gusto as he sung “’pon de river, pon de bank” not 12 hours earlier.
After the service Bill freely mingled with his fellow parishioners, especially his sisters in Christ. Phone numbers flowed from dimpled maidens to Bill’s phone with the ease of Government officials disposing of hotels. Making full use of his office as an organizing fellow of The Christian, the Church’s newsletter.
And so it was thus Bill met and turned his attentions to one Christiana Wekesa (name hidden to protect the guilty). She put up a spirited fight but she was like the Grand Regency to his Libyan consortium. I congratulated Bill on his excellent taste and good fortune in finding a good woman. He agreed.
One day Christine saw it fit to send Bill a text message inquiring as to his mode of dress for a meeting he was attending. Like 9.8 out of 10 men Bill took the opportunity to inquire with keen interest what she was wearing. Things naturally deteriorated from there. Several text messages later (Safaricom remarkably was able to handle the load) Bill composed a lengthy message illustrating in great detail how much as he appreciated her navy blue skirt skirt, white blouse and stockings, on the whole he would much rather she not have them altogether.
He then proceeded to paint a rich tapestry of what exactly he planned to do had he not been separated by duty and geography from her. A fine sheen of sweat peppered his brow and upper lip as he put his back into a lengthy text message that had the screen of the Nokia fogging over.
Suddenly he noticed that the meeting he was attending required his input so he quickly scrolled to Christina’s name in the phone book and hit send. He then tabled his market penetration graphs and miscellaneous visual aids and got on with it.
His phone vibrated in his pocket as a text message arrived. And then another. And then another.
He smiled modestly to himself and wondered if Casanova might have gotten further under his tutelage.
After a lengthy presentation he sat down and fished out his phone to find 18 unread messages and 10 missed calls.
"Poor old gal,” he said smugly. “Can’t handle old Bill, can ye?”
As he read the messages his smile began to falter.
The first message was from his Bishop who went out of his way to elaborate politely but firmly that the only place he would allow himself to be kissed was on his rings as symbols of his office.
The next message was from Sister Mary Margaret and consisted solely of question marks.
Father Mulinge from the parish urged him with great speed to see him as soon as possible for counseling.
Retired Colonel Wilberforce J. Majani (Rtd) wanted to know what the devil he was playing at.
Bill felt a cold hand clasp his heart.
With trembling fingers he navigated to his outbox and a ghastly smile appeared on his face.
The correspondence had not been sent to Christina after all, but to ‘Christians’, which happened to be the distribution list of 70 involved in the Church newsletter, which included the Bishop of the Diocese and several priests, nuns and respected members of society. They had received the text message (composed of 6 text messages) and read it with initial curiosity followed by confusion followed by disbelief and finally shock at some of the initiatives Bill was proposing that he undertake without further delay.
Bill now is based in Rwanda, where I believe he has converted to Islam.
The saga he told me over drinks one stormy night some months back. I sympathized with him.
“Well, now people have read about another ass in addition to Balaam’s” I could not resist pointing out. “Always best to make a clean breast of things, not take it lying down. Once everything is laid bare, things tend to work out.”
I can’t really say that he was all that amused.
AOBWorld Domination proceeding steadily. Us against the world, you and me against the world
PIC OF THE DAY
T-3
Tell us something we don’t know!
© M for tHiNkEr'S rOoM, 2008. | Permalink | 28 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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8:59
The Wolves Within Us
» Cock And Bull Here is an email forward that I would like to share with you:
A Cherokee tribal elder was telling his grandson about the battle the old man was waging inside himself. He said, “It is between two wolves, my son. One is an evil wolf: Anger, envy, sorrow, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is the good wolf: Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The boy thought this over for a minute, and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee replied simply: “The one I feed.”
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6:53
2008 SIFE Kenya National Exposition - Recap and photo download
» The Benin Epilogue Part I: Africa-Ready for Business Nairobi, 12th July 2008 - More than 600 University students and business people converged today at the Nairobi Panafric Hotel to witness Community Entrepreneurship projects carried out by Various students in the 14 SIFE Kenya teams. Moi University emerged winners, followed by the University of Nairobi and Africa Nazarene University...READ MORE and Download photos
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5:33
"Why does Barack Obama hate my family?", Counterpunch
» Marian's Blog "... I'm not claiming to know the story behind the picture of Obama and his father at the airport, but I suspect that joint custody between Hawaii, Indonesia, Massachusetts, Kansas, New York, Illinois and Africa would have been tough. ..."...
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2:40
Ministers Should Carry Their Own Crosses
» You Missed This Also published today: Why The Constantly Blundering NSIS Is A Big Danger To Kenya Part 2
So Jamlek Kamau (MP for Kigumo) feels that Uhuru Kenyatta is the wrong number for Ababu Namwamba to point fingers at. And that he should concentrate his energies on his Budalangi constituency. So who in the eyes of Kamau is the right number? Who is it that can have himself toyed with while others are left alone without investigation I wonder?
Any leader’s responsibility is to his constituents and the country as a whole. If for instance Ababu Namwaba comes across a case that needs clarification in parliament, the repairing of dykes will not stop in Budalangi just because the member looked into national matters. The idea of fellow MPs rallying support for ministers under investigation is sending the wrong message because it’s not a question of friendship here - just a minister who may or may not have broken the law. However complex our laws may be, it all boils to whether Uhuru or Kajwang' or Kimunya rubbished them or not. The case of errant ministers is that simple. Laws are made to be followed however small or negligible they may be in the eyes of the big guys. If Uhuru is guilty of irregular nomination of councilors let him carry his own cross. If he’s not guilty then he has nothing to fear or to be publicly supported about. The government I believe has mechanisms to determine such cases.
I’d not be surprised to see Uhuru going for some constituency love next if the storm gets thicker. And that’s the other point. Constituents too should desist from rallying blind support for MPs who are under investigation. If we are to mend this country, we cannot start by dancing around a corrupt minister just so our constituency can have a flag. We have to start crushing impunity from the constituency level and gladly let our MPs crash to the ground in disgrace if they’re found guilty of corruption or abuse of office.
Elius Mbau of Maragwa also in his defense for Uhuru had the audacity to say that any action taken by a government leader should be respected because the leaders are duly elected. Is he suggesting that we respect ministers’ decisions regardless of whether they’re right of wrong? That is the kind of balderdash that Kenya does not need now or ever. Is that not where abuse of office stems from? Ministers feeling that they can do anything just because?
And those speaking of witch hunting, of what use is the grand coalition if we cannot tackle grand corruption without fear of upsetting the balance?
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Why The Constantly Blundering NSIS Is A Big Danger To Kenya Part 2
» You Missed This There is an old Chinese proverb that says: “ask the youth, they know everything.”This proverb is rather appropriate in describing many political commentors in Kenya at the moment. They have no interest in history and yet they love to be authoritative in passing judgment over various issues based on what they see as their intellectual capacity. Between yesterday and today I have gotten a pretty good idea of what some of them think whenever I indulge in this topic of the NSIS. Some of them even believe that I usually hurriedly sit down to base my writing on “ghosts and shadows” that do not exist. If indeed that was my style here, I highly doubt if we would have now been approaching 2 million hits in this popular political site. Indeed we are even witnessing an interesting trend where daily newspapers and entire media houses are frequently making great efforts to copy as much as they possibly can from Kumekucha.
But to be fair, yesterday was also the day I got an email from Central province from this lady who said in part; “I have read Kumekucha without fail for long time now and I can confidently say that what you write is the truth.”
What touched me most about this email was that as wars of a tribal nature rage in the country (and I am told even in Western capitals where Kenyans live) this Kenyan who happens to belong to the house of Mumbi was able to make her own fair judgement on Kumekucha.
I dare add that one of the reasons why the old dinosaurs are still in power in Kenya today is because the younger people of Kenya have chosen to accept things at face value. Nobody is really interested in thinking outside the box. I urge you folks never to take things at face value. Even here in Kumekucha. Hint: if you have time, take a look at yesterday’s comments (for Part 1 of this article) and see if you see a pattern. I can assure you that things are NOT what they seem to be. Secondly some nasty commentators suddenly went quiet. Why? Anyway am sure re-grouping may be happening even now, but please let us be ready this time round folks.
There are some pertinent questions regular readers of this blog must ask themselves and not be in a hurry to answer. Why is it that this blog always seems to be under attack? Why not other blogs and sites? Who would benefit most if this blog shuts down? Who would want to keep away regular sober commentators from Kumekucha as much as possible and why? Who would be terrified at the thought of most readers irrespective of their tribe or political inclination uniting here in Kumekucha for a common cause? Would this be important enough for them to spend as much resources as possible to stop this unity from ever happening?
Sorry folks I cannot answer those questions for you. There are some questions in this life that nobody can answer for you, you just need to find the answers for yourself no matter how long it takes.
During the election chaos early this year, the CEO of Safaricom Michael Joseph was put under considerable pressure to shut down the cell phone company’s popular sms service. Read the whole Economist article HERE. To his credit Mr Joseph (a tough native of South Africa) did not crumble under that pressure. Still that did not stop a number of Kenyans being charged with incitement based on the sms messages they sent from their phones (the cases are still going on). The extent to which the NSIS monitor most cell phone communications is unknown to many Kenyans.
To be fair to our intelligence service, the impact that the cell phone and the World Wide Web have had on Kenyan politics is much more considerable than most people seem to realize and it has been virtually unstoppable. Indeed experts have now identified improved communications between citizens of the planet as one of the reasons why the whole world seems to be suddenly spinning out of control virtually everywhere. But still there is no way to justify any effort to spend valuable money and resources trying to stop the unstoppable. And yet this is exactly what the NSIS has been doing and fortunes in taxpayer’s funds have been directed towards the effort of controlling mobile phone communications and the web.
Contrast this scenario with what is happening in neighboring Tanzania. The intelligence network in that country is second to none in the whole of Africa and yet their budget is nowhere near being as large as that of the NSIS. Admittedly Tanzania has benefited greatly from the “majumba kumi” (10 houses) system set up by founding father president Julius Nyerere. Under the system every 10 households has an officially recognized leader who reports everything to the authorities. Especially foreigners or strangers who have moved into the neighborhood recently, even if they are mere guests in one of the 10 houses under their jurisdiction. The result is that nobody in Tanzania “coughs” without the authorities knowing. Bear in mind that Tanzania is an administrator’s nightmare. It is a huge country, almost the size of Kenya and Uganda put together.
Recently the Tanzanian government has been increasingly concerned about Kenyans exporting crime into their country and has developed a very elaborate system for keeping an eye on Kenyans that involves the use of beautiful Tanzanian women agents whom they know most Kenyans have a weakness for. What you may not want to tell the immigration officer at the border, you will surely tell a beautiful girl who is falling all over you after a few drinks. They also have a sophisticated high-tech system being installed at the border that monitors the entry into the country of all traffic from Kenya using technology that involves photographing you at the border. But I digress. My point here is that the Tanzanians are known in the international intelligence community as people who insist on doing things in their own way. But oh my do they get results!!
It all has a lot to do with the fact that the intelligence system in that country, unlike in Kenya, was set up “giraffe style” where wise founding fathers clearly had a long term view in mind. As a result skills have even been passed down in a deliberate and orderly manner.
No comparison to poor Kenya where the Special Branch was reduced to a personal intelligence service for State House in last year’s general elections while all other projects remained under-funded and almost abandoned. The results of this can clearly be seen as the nation stands now on the brink of disaster.
Another huge difference between Kenya and Tanzanian intelligence is the tribal issue.
Oh yes, I can hear you sigh. Take heart, I too have sighed, but deeper than you have. Impeccable sources have confirmed to me that the NSIS has been torn right down the middle by tribalism in recent times. Trouble seems to have started when current Director General, Michael Gichagi took over. In fact other sources albeit less reliable, tell me that this could be the reason why the Kenyan intelligence ship is leaking more terribly that the famous Titanic ever did. Shockingly, there was a point in the run up to last year’s ill-fated general elections when reports were circulating on the web purporting to be NSIS research on the popularity levels of the two main presidential candidates. The scary thing here is not whether or not the allegations were true but the very thought that it was possible for such a confidential piece of information to be leaked from our national intelligence service and be widely distributed amongst Kenyans on the web. That fact alone tells you that it is in the best interests of the country to dismantle the NSIS as we know it today and start over.
P.S. Somebody has suggested that the idea of switching from the “British way” of doing intelligence, which was what the old Special branch was, to the American system which was the structure used in setting up the NSIS was a big mistake and has totally failed. Indeed American things do not export too well to Africa. They never have. But clearly all experts I have spoken to are unanimous in agreeing on one thing—namely the fact that the NSIS is a mess.
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