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20:52 New ABH Site
» african bullets & honey From now on, African Bullets & Honey will be located here. Posted in Uncategorized
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16:21
Kenya's Public University Students - Idiots?
» Rants, Raves & Reviews I have never understood the need for violence & destruction. I never damaged university property (well... not knowingly) even when I felt the administration was wrong. And in dan 'illiterate' moi's heydays, the administration was often wrong...
How does burning university buildings - and looting computers - help the kenyatta (or any other) university students? They only hurt themselves & not the administration or lecturers...
When raila allowed University of Nairobi students to 'protest' in the streets... they messed up by destroying the goods & premises of various businesses...
And university 'graduates' wonder why many businessfolk refuse to hire the Univ grads... Coz the 'grads' are plain Idiots!
(I am all for PEACEFUL demonstrations or those that do not destroy what is 'mine')
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15:54
Organic Kenya or Poisonous Kenya?
» Kenyanentrepreneur.com There is an interesting piece on 60 minutes, a popular prime time television show on CBS, about Kenya’s lions being poisoned by Maasai herdsmen in the Mara. You can watch the entire clip on-line by clicking on this link. So, the piece states that the Maasai herdsmen have discovered that an imported pesticide called Furdana, is [...]
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11:51
Update 2 from Annan conference in Geneva
» Kenyan Pundit Following points were raised about the ICC:
- It takes long - Cambodia process started way back in 2002, that’s six years.
- The court can only handle a few perpetrators so it needs to be reserved for the big fry…what happens to middle/lower level guys?
- For many reasons (including above) it is important not to lose sight of the national process…the ICC will always be there.
- Someone made the point that the ICC process will be too detached from the average Kenya, importance of process being local with cameras in court etc. should not be underestimated.
- Someone from the ICC should speak to Kenyans about the process, they don’t want to hear from pundits (hehehe).
-Someone suggested that they should announce investigations just to make the threat real.
- Annan thinks its critical for justice to be done.
- There should be a sense of balance - not just about Eldoret, but also Kisumu, Nakuru, Naivasha, Mombasa - one side should not feel victimized.
What the ICC is saying:
- They are monitoring Kenya, O’Campo has a special adviser- Most effective as a stick e.g. in Columbia where the threat has been used to push for local prosecutions (takes time though)
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11:10
From Horror to Hopelessness: Our Forgotten Somali Refugee Crisis
» Kenya Imagine Since the border closure, the Kenyan authorities have deported hundreds, possibly thousands, of Somali refugees and asylum seekers, thereby violating the most fundamental part of refugee law, the right not to be refouled-forcible return to a place where a person faces a threat to life or freedom on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. Under its obligations in the 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of the Refugee Problems in Africa (1969 OAU Convention), Kenya is also bound not to send refugees or asylum seekers back to situations of generalized violence, such as in Somalia.
Updates on Kenya's Somalian refugee crisis.
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10:19
Sovaya' Fake Mpesa Transactions
» REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG Ever wondered whether the websites allowing yo buy or sell via Mpesa ever work? Well, I wondered the same and decided to try out. I decided to access the Sovaya wireless and was asked the payment mode for the internet airtime.
Mpesa was the easiest for me, so was asked to send money to 0715 592168 and wait for confirmation, that is before I can surf using the credit bought. For starters, I decided to buy a shs. 100 voucher, just to test whether it will work.
The Mpesa went through without any hitches, only that I waited for 30 minutes with no response from the Sovaya side; either a text telling me that I could use the credit or saying it bounced, or a web message allowing me to surf.
So I decided to call the customer care number given, but the person who received the call could not even get my number, it took two minutes for the person to take my number so that they can get back to me.
I always get irritated when someone gives you poor service then on top of that they waste your credit because they just can get what you are saying. You repeat the number five times....first to allow them pick a pen....then the number,....and on and on...
Anyway, maybe the service is not so much in demand or not in use thats why.........
My curiosity made me lose my 100 bob.......
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9:54
Moyo Vs Bono on Aid to Africa
» What An African Woman Thinks Dambisa Moyo continues to do her counter-Bono rounds, articulating the message of her book which boils down to, half a century and at least one trillion dollars later, it should be clear to everyone that something’s wrong with the AID picture, because on multiple fronts, things aren’t getting any better, in fact, they’re getting worse.
According to Steve Hamm of GlobeSpotting, Moyo spoke at NYU recently and characterised Bono & Co as “misguided,” claiming “they paint Africa and Africans as victims rather than countries and people with capabilities and promise.” And, on top of that, they usurp the role of African leaders, who really ought to be the ones who speak for Africa.
Hamm reports that she compared it to “having an International musician like Amy Winehouse commenting on the US debt crisis rather than Obama. It makes no sense."
On the one hand, I really feel badly for Bono and Blair and their ilk. They see a problem and they’re compelled to do something. It’s hard to fault them on that ground. There are too many people all over the place doing nothing when they should be doing something.
On the other hand, it’s clear that AID has not worked/is not working as it’s supposed to, unless of course, it had the subversive objective all along of perpetuating dependence, in which case, it’s truly a work of genius. As Moyo says, “giving aid to Africa remains one of the biggest ideas of our time,” which is puzzling no end because all the evidence suggests is that it’s an idea that has failed miserably.
Calling contemporary thinkers to proffer new ideas, please.
I leave it at that. If you’re not new here, you already know I can go on and on and on about this subject. I feel it in a deep place in a deep way.
It would be interesting have Bono and Moyo discussing/debating this before an audience. So, who’s putting that together already?
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In a maybe perhaps couldbe related development, Partnership for Change, a Kenyan lobby group comprising organisations from all over Kenya posted an open letter to the IMF Chief today, asking him not to grant the Kenyan Government’s request for a 100 million dollar loan until the government became more accountable to Kenyans. The letter is posted on the Marsgroup blog here.
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In other news, times, they are a-changing. The incoming British High Commissioner to Kenya has a blog where we can interact with him should we so choose. That should be interesting. Or maybe not. Maybe just different. We wait to see.It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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9:31
Twitter is better with Gravity
» Kikuyumoja's realm If you own a recent Nokia phone with the Symbian S60 operating system (S60v3, S60v5) and are using the microblogging services Twitter or Laconia, you may be interested in using a new Twitter client for the phone:
Gravity v1.00 is the first fully-featured and native Twitter client for the S60 platform. It supports multiple accounts, Twitter Search, Laconica, TwitPic and wraps everything into a gorgeous looking interface.
- Compatible with Twitter and Laconica
- All functions available on your S60 phone: tweet, reply, DM, follow & unfollow, create favourites, search, auto-update and many more …
- Tabbed view of your Timeline, Replies, Messages, Friends, …
- Setup and use as many accounts as you want at the same time
- Twitter-Search section with multiple search tabs and Twitter Trends
- Post pictures via TwitPic
- Open URLs from any Tweet
- Kinetic scrolling on S60v5 ( Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 )
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Theme support on S60v3 ( fixed dark and bright theme )
(source)
The only downside to this software is that it may create too much traffic whereas the alternative - Twibble (which I’d also used since its first day as a public release) - seems to generate less traffic.
I’m on a 1GB flat for my phone, which means I can generate 1GB in traffic via the phone and only pay 9,90 EUR / month. I actually don’t need 1GB at the moment because we also have DSL here, but it makes sense if you happen to download more than 41 MB / month (9,90€ / 0,24€/MB = 41,25 MB) + it isn’t limited to a proxy server, special online pages or other crazy limitations. And DSL sometimes fails, so it’s a good fall back option.
Creating a sceenshot of Gravity is a bit complicated as the Shift (Pencil) key on the phone (which is used in combination with the middle joystick button) also triggers the input form for new tweets on Gravity:
The beautiful part is that you can really SCROLL between tweets like you would do on an iPhone - bila the touchscreen on my N95 though..
And another good part is that it’s now much easier to insert images on your tweets (Twibble also has this but isn’t as comfy to use).
Gravity comes with a 10day demo version and I instantly (!) registered it after using it for only 2 minutes. Now, you’d have to know for yourself if you’re willing to cough up ~ 10,- € (in Germany - sijui why they are adding VAT on shareit.com for other countries) for an otherwise free and time consuming service such as Twitter, but then, again, there are other - much more useless - applications for the iPhone ppl are willing to spend money on and also: there are only a few really good applications for Symbian devices. Gravity is one of them.
You’ll also need to access the download page for the registered version via a normal computer as the phone’s internal S60 browser is having problems identifying the .sisx format. Jan, the developer behind Gravity, also mentioned that he’ll be working on some bugfixes now, so maybe there’s a way to include this as well (refers to the purchase of the software directly from a phone. Update routines are just flawless!).
Verdict: If you’ve been on Twibble before, you’ll LOVE Gravity. Highly recommended application.
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UPDATE: After some recent updates (currently 1.1x), Gravity also has the following additional features:
- Configurable Audio Alerts for Timeline/Replies/DM’s
- Group support for creating custom tabs with user-defined filters (S60v3)
- Post pictures to MobyPicture and TwitPic
- Preview pictures from MobyPicture or TwitPic
- Full-Screen mode on S60v3
- Built-in auto-update function and beta access for testing the latest features
And while I think that Gravity is the best application I’ve ever bought for a phone, I’d like to add two remarks:
- There should be a cheaper version of Gravity as not everyone out there is able to cough up 9,95 € on a mobile app - and sometimes it’s technical reasons as to why a prog like Gravity is only successful in developed countries: how would you pay for this app from e.g. Kenya (where there is money but no payment system such as Paypal?). And how about a sponsored (& localized) version with fixed banners? Would it make sense? And what would ppl be willing to spend on an app (in other countries than Germany)?
- There should be a mobile WordPress editor that’s just as easy to use as Gravity. After all these years of using WordPress for blogs and mobile phones, I’ve often called for better mobile blog editors and tested quite a few on this blog. Twitter indeed already is some sort of microblogging, BUT! it would be great if there also was an easy-to-use editor tool on the phone which could provide true mobile blogging.
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9:17
Global Bug Bites: 25% Lay Off @ Zain
» KA-INVESTOR 
Thanks to @louizah tweets
I’m informed that Zain has announced a plan to lay off 141 workers in its Kenya subsidiary as it restructures to wedge off the expected effects of the global economic recession on the African continent. The firm also plans to outsource some of its functions including network building, operations and information technology systems, and make some strategic acquisitions on the continent. The Group has set aside USD1-2 billion for its Africa’s operation in 2009.
Despite Zain Kenya's growing subscriber base to 3.07 million (18% market share), the mobile service provide registered huge losses last year. its main competitor’s – Safaricom, has over 13.3 million subscribers or 77% of the market.
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Update 1 from Geneva - KNDR (Annan) Conference
» Kenyan Pundit I’m tired and sleepy, but the show must go on.
I arrived in Geneva for the Annan conference on Kenya this morning and haven’t had a chance to rest…too much going on.
I’ve been invited specifically because of my role as a blogger during the post election violence - which is huge - because it means that the Kenyan blogging scene is being taken seriously as an area of influence and a source of information (yeah for bloggers!). Unfortunately, the Chatham House Rules apply to most of the sessions, so I can’t be too detailed.
I’m sure there will still be lots to report about given my peskiness. So what’s happened so far..
- Shared a cab ride with Judge Kriegler from the Kriegler Commission. Cab ride chit chat led to breakfast. Unfortunately, the Judge was tight as a clam…he must have sensed my blogging radar…hehehe. I will say he seemed super-aware of his role as a foreigner when he did his work and maybe that’s why he stopped short of doing his job kabisa, unlike Waki. Anyway, he was quite friendly, a bit condescending, and apparently very unpopular with Kenyan civil society .
- At breakfast, sighted Karua, Wangari Maathai and Wako having breakfast together. Talk about strange bedfellows.
- Ran into a number of civil society friends including Maina Kiai, who had interesting stories about interviewing for the IEC gig…his interview lasted all of six minutes and he apparently was told by a source that he’d never get the gig because he had pissed on Kikuyus while he was at KNCHR. Frontrunner is Kaparo. Seeing the civil society guys lead to me being invited to sit in on a meeting with Annan and civil society reps to hear their views on where things are one year later.
- General prognosis, things are grim. Political space is diminishing, ethnic based militias are rearming (this time with AK-47s not machetes), the people are angry and disillusioned. Several references to Madagascar and the fact that the fire next time will be class based and not ethnic based.
- Potential flashpoints: census later this year; military given what happened in Molo/El Wak can’t be presumed to be professional any more…also suspension of the Tonje rules is formenting disquiet; a police force that’s running amok.
- There’s is a sense that the political class is numb, yet there can be no movement without them because they still hold enormous sway in Kenya e.g. forests are burning on the instructions of politicians; youth in Rift Valley were ready to cause havoc if the Ruto censure had gone down.
- Quote of the morning: “Kenya does not need reform, it needs an overhaul.”
OK, gotta run and clean up and get ready for the afternoon session…next post will be on the ICC option.
Comments open for the duration of the conference…please keep it civil!
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4:09
Boyd Oyier's amazing potraits of Malcom X, Marting Luther King Jnr, Nelson Mandela and Lauryn Hill among others
» Kenyanpoet If you have been to the WAPI events held every 3rd saturday of the month at the British Council parking lot then you must have come across Boyd's works.
Boyd is an artist who specialises in potrait drawings main in black and white. He is currently a student at Kenyatta University and can draw any personality upon request.
What caught my attention was the portrait below - his representation of Malcom X- with such precision that it actually looks better than the actual photo.
To make your order call him on 0770 534853
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3:26
Headline News
» tHiNkEr'S rOoM 
You can’t make this stuff up.
The animal stared at him suggestively? Riiight!
© M for tHiNkEr'S rOoM, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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