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• June 24, 2009
• 20:45

  Cricket Without Boundaries to return to Kenya

   » ‎ Kenya Cricket
  
  Great news from this blog's favourite charity. Cricket Without Boundaries is a charity that is "dedicated to helping, educating and developing local communities around the World through the spread and growth of cricket." In particular, they have made special efforts in Africa, and have already undertaken trips to Kenya, Rwand and Uganda in 2007 and 2008 (right).
  
  October 2009 sees a return to Kenya where they last introduced the game to over 500 children in areas that would not otherwise be exposed to the game. 120 new coaches were also trained and awarded certificates to ensure that the work is continued in their abscence. For a full report of the 2008 trip see here. Kenya Cricket.com would like to wish all involved the very best and looks forward to hearing about the even more successful 2009 trip!
  
  If you are able to support this fantastic initiative, you can follow the links via the facebook site to donate. All donations go straight to the charity and help to raise AIDS awareness through teaching disadvantaged children cricket.
  
  photo taken from CWOB websiteBecome a fan of Kenya Cricket.com on facebook: [www.facebook.com]

• 17:28

  Mashada mix

   » ‎ MREMBO
  I’m fighting my demons. I’m bored and as the saying goes, “an empty mind is the devil’s workshop”. I can’t sleep either, so I’ve been web-hopping and landed at Mashada. Two things This thread has really impressed me.. as in the fact it has not been derailed and the discussion. Given me stuff to think about. A lot of [...]

• 17:13

  3 gay men arrested and paraded on TV

   » ‎ Black Looks
  Three homosexuals were arrested today by the Edo State police command in Benin City, Nigeria.They were paraded like common criminals and displayed on television. The command Public Relations officer has said they would be charged to court as homosexuality is a criminal offence in Nigeria. No more information yet….

• 16:35

  Quick Hits (Lazy edition)

   » ‎ Kenyan Pundit

  Tags:  Miscellany  

  Lazy, because the links are largely lifted from stuff I put up on twitter [yep, twitter still sucking dry my blogging mojo - it's like color tv vs. black and white].

  Anyway, on to the links:

  - African Venture Capital Fellows: Program aimed at promoting venture capital in Africa by educating and training future venture capitalists and leaders of high-growth and early stage companies based in Africa. Initial target countries – South Africa and Nigeria.

  - Stanford’s E-corner: free videos and podcasts of leading Silicon Valley thought leaders.

  - What Google should do in Africa – support Open Spectrum

  - Twitter for newbies.

• 15:15

  Gangster's Paradise Citizen's Nightmare

   » ‎ You Missed This
  
  Kenyan criminals are using their resourcefulness to unleash an unprecedented wave of deadly car jackings, lucrative kidnappings and violent robberies at a time when many kenyans are unable to make any ends meet. For the most part all these incidences have involved the unfortunate loss of precious lives. It seems everyone is now a target and no one is spared including members of our own government.
  
  The most recent incident involved a kidnap attempt on assistant nairobi metropolitan minister Elizabeth Ongoro's child from the prestigious Makini school. Insecurity is knocking at the executive door. Only last week youthful permanent youth secretary Murugu Kinuthia was shot and wounded in Hurligham in what is now an all too common scenario involving fatal car-jackings resulting in either near death experiences if not permanent loss of life. Thank God the job was not finished.
  
  Gangster's paradise
  Earlier this month Evans Akula MP was car-jacked. Being an MP he was robbed of the equivalent of two year's worth of taxed salary for the honest above average earning Kenyan tax payer. I am sure you're as concerned as i am it could be your MP next month.This insecurity problem is getting out of hand and fast. Gates are being opened quicker at night and dogs are upgraded from pet to security status.
  
  As the Khwisero MP was chauffered around for three hours in a late night guided tour of the city he was chatted up by his captors who told him they were angry with parliament for not giving the country a new constitution and car-jacking was their escape route out of poverty. The gangster's have decided to make our nightmare their extended paradise oblivious of the fact a new constitution will not pass a law making car-jacking legal
  
  It's not the first time this blog is speaking about security in our country. Chris has tirelessly worked to bring us up to speed with the security situation through his experience. The truth is no one kenyan life is more precious than the other and if only ordinary Kenyans had the luxury of knowing beforehand what crime was coming their way each day they would be forearmed . MPs whose lives are under threat possess firearms such that if indeed their life is in danger and they're not just crying wolf they can protect themselves.
  
  Sadly the same luxury does not apply for the rest of ordinary kenyans although some kenyans in the diaspora have access to legally owning firearms. If only they would be so lucky to get a hint of what crime was coming their way at the start of each new day there'd be no need for a police force. The message is loud and clear -never before has the insecurity aspect of ordinary kenyan's daily hard-knock life rang so close to home for Kenyan MPs and government minister's. If executive action is going to be taken let it not be reserved only for the politicans and the elite but include ordinary kenyan lives which are just as inexpendable.Kumekucha

  
  

  

• 13:24

  Pictures of Young Barack Obama

   » ‎ Mauri Yambo
  Click here for a see-for-yourself: a Picture Galleryhttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

  
  

• 13:03

  BL-5C

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  mobile phones  

  Batteries for cell phones are a commodity and thus often quite cheap. The interesting part is that fake batteries will often cost the same as original ones and some dealers will swear by the fake Chinese NokLa phone in their hands that they are of course only selling “Original Nokia” products.

  Original. Yeah, right.

  

  What you see here:

  A) original battery that came shipped with my Nokia 6230i

  B) fake “original” battery from eBay @ 6,39 EUR

  C) most-likely “original” battery from eBay @ 4,99 EUR

  Battery B really pissed us off as it was drained within a few hours (!). The hologram is just very simple yet it looks like an original battery (except for the hologram and the deeper golden contacts). There are no hints on Nokia’s website other than the hologram (they used to have a form to double-check that number on the holo but imho even those numbers were faked).

  

  Battery B was bulk-ware, meaning that it came shipped in a plastic bag while battery C was in an original Nokia packaging with a proper invoice. A bit irritating that there are two different mAh readings – a sticker that says 850 mAh on the front and a printed 970 mAh on the back. On Nokia’s website it says 900 mAh for the BL-5C, but hey – Nokia’s website has never been that accurate on phone details. Nokia also published a product advisory on the BL-5C type some time ago – a successful battery type has been produced over 300 million times and is built by five different manufacturers.

  There are many, many dealers on eBay that sell BL-5C batteries for Nokia phones and I’d say that most of them are just fake ones. On the other hand, candidate number C was the cheapest, came in an original packaging and seems to perform like candidate A. Simbaya!

  eBay as an online marketplace of course isn’t the best platform to purchase such electronics, but it is the one with the most competitive, or let’s say: comparable prices. Any other online-shop or even physical store will be more expensive (due to shipping rates & other general expenses). And it ain’t about the costs alone – I’d be willing to cough up more on a battery (but not too much!) if the dealer can assure that it is indeed original. I know this is a huge issue with product piracy and so on but – other than with cars where a non-original spare part may just as well be performing as required – most fake batteries also don’t last as long.  There may be exeptions to this general rule, but from my experience with this and other phones, most copies aren’t good enough, not even close. Probably also because they are commodities and their Chinese manufacturers just don’t give a damn…

  
  

  

• 12:41

  Last day :(

   » ‎ the-undergraduate
  Il miss driving school :'(
  Am in love,in love with the Faws :(
  How id have loved to drive the sexiest and biggest of them all one last time for old times sake *sigh*
  il miss my friends,students,instructors and staff :(
  Il miss trying to dodge some of the older trucks,il miss 'mswahili's' lunchtime vibe :(.i learnt quite alot from him and he took me to the ghettos,showed me a world i never knew existed
  Il miss getting teased esp when i remember there was a time the instructors said i was barned from giving or taking any numbers from my classmates lol!Just yesterday one of them complained that everytime 'aki jenga nyumba ya gorofa anabomolewa' by the other guys i hangout with lol!i guess thats what happens when you're in a class with few chics
  Il miss the special treatment always being given first priority in picking the trucks i wanted
  Il miss being welcomed with a smile and firm handshake on arrival
  Il miss the fact that people actually took time to findout how you were doing and were always there to help you out whenever you needed to get something sorted
  Il miss the crushes,il miss the stories
  Il miss my morning and evening walks to the mats stage
  Il miss the scandals,il miss the undercover operations and trade that takes place on a daily basis
  Il miss it all,il miss them all
  I wanna go back already :'(
  They all made my summer one to remember
  
  Cheers y'all,il be missing ya
  Glory you rock

• 10:49

  Apple’s Big Man

   » ‎ bankelele

  Tags:  retirement  

  
  
  Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs is back to work and Mac users around the world and apples shareholders can exhale and look forward to more years of revolutionary products. But what does it mean when a CEO is so intricately tied to his brand and has no clear succession strategy?
  
  His mysterious five month absence from work is rather similar to that of the President Omar Bongo who, however, did not return to rule Gabon.
  
  Hundreds of family heads, company founders, business leaders, patricians, and presidents consider themselves immortal and, like Apple, rarely entertain discussions on health or succession.
  
  Blind Item: There are three gentlemen in Kenya who fit the equal of Steve Jobs - leaders so closely inter-wined with their brand and with no defined succession plan: one is a center of power, one is a leading revenue generator, one is a fast banker; two have disclosed medical problems, two have had recent aircraft mishaps, and two have no defined successors. All three are integral to their brand and it is important that their partners and shareholders define real succession strategies.
  
  Finally, now that the real Steve Jobs is back to work we can resume reading communiqués from the other Steve Jobs.

• 9:53

  Confederations Cup: Labour of Love for South Africa

   » ‎ SportsKenya
  
  Vuvuzela...crime and the samba boys seem to be the main headlines from Africa's 1st Confederations Cup. There are many things that we can write about but from the pitch I have watched top notch games, better than some international competitive games. Maybe I'm biased here being African, but it seem the Confed Cup is finally becoming more than a formality for most teams.Logistics and infrastructural problems aside, South Africa has shown it can hold its own in hosting a major sports events. Though FIFA chief Sepp Blatter had to make available free tickets, given the prior 'non-significance' given to the event, I can't place too much credence to that argument. The security issue, I see some sensationalisation with that too but the SA authorities need take that into consideration. Pres. Zuma had better arm his people with enough 'umshini' by 2010. They can't repeat such incidences like what happened to Egypt and Brazil players however much hotel authorities may play down the issue.The European kings made it known their intention to win the Confed Cup (and they are my favs), qualifying with 3 clean sheets. They seem to building strength upon strength and the game against South Africa was my best example of their tactical choices. Considering they are even without their top midfielders in Senna and Iniesta, any team ought to shiver at the thought of meeting them.The Brazilians on the other hand survived an onslaught from the Egyptians and they have seemed shaky at the back but they have devastated opponents with their counter-attacks. (Image courtesy of Adidas)The Final for me should be Spain vs Brazil though Spain vs South Africa would be ideal for ticket sales and acceptability across the continent. But then again, this is football and anything can happen. Come Sunday and we shall be crowning new Confederations champions !Dempsey breaks Spanish defence a second time- Image courtesy of Getty Images
  UPDATE:US beats Spain 2-0; well again against the formbook, Obama's boys did the unthinkable and reached the Final of this unpredictable tournament. I eat humble pie for not even considering them as favourites. Now my critics are piling attacks saying it's the grass that does the talking on any particular day. On a positive note, this creates a fan-base wider than the usual European audience. If winning the ConFed Cup is bound to make the game more appealing to the Americans then let it be. More incentive for Pres. Obama to come to Africa next year if the US qualifies for the World Cup...

• 9:42

  CATHOLICS, CELIBACY & SEX(Celibacy has a waive on Sodomy)

   » ‎ Hapa Kenya

  
  

  The Catholic Church has recently been on the defensive, its morality is in question, it’s priest are paraded in public media in their nakedness showing the vile that is easily excused as only human. The Doctrinal pillar of the Catholic Church, celibacy, is in doubt, more so over its practicability in the modern world.

  One school of thought argues that in the eyes of the Catholic Church, Father Milingo and his crew of deserters-the Catholic Prelature, have outraged the church more that the boys molesting pedophile in the name of Father Kizito. As far as the vow of celibacy is concerned, Kizito has only committed the sin of being unnatural while Milingo has shaken the very foundation that the Catholic denomination stands.

  Probably to build on this argument, it would be prudent to define three terms that emanates from the overall meaning of celibacy from a catholic perspective. These terms are celibacy, marriage and sex.

  Celibacy is the renunciation of marriage implicitly or explicitly made, for the more perfect observance of chastity, by all those who receive the Sacrament of Orders in any of the higher grades. The Wikipedia says,” Celibacy in its strictest definition means to be unmarried. However, the term is often popularly used to describe a state of life where one chooses to abstain from all sexual activities which is strictly "chastity".” From this we gather that Celibacy can only be measured against renunciation of marriage and sex.

  To understand the proceeding argument, we need to define the second term that forms the overall l meaning of celibacy, marriage. In the African context, marriage was the union of two families symbolized by cemented bond between a man and woman from the two unrelated families. Biblically marriage the meaning is more or less the same thing however with the twist of being blessed by God.

  With this kind of definition, Father Milingo’s peccadillo in the court of the Catholics is marriage and as such he has forsaken the vows of celibacy. On the other hand, Kizito is not guilty of this sin; he has not married anyone, has he? So what is Kizito’s real sin?

  Whether or not Kizito is in contempt of the celibacy vow lies in the true meaning of sex. To counter any counter argument, allow me to state that the word Homo sexuality was never in the ancient Bible, it has found its way via the numerous versions that have sprung during the last century. Actually the word Homo is Greek meaning same while the bible was originally written in Hebrew. The closest act that would be equated for homosexuality was Sodomy and it was never considered a form of sex. Spiritually the meaning of sex can be derived from Gen 2:18-25,” {24} For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. {25} The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” The natural/contemporary meaning of sex is the intimate interaction between species of different sexes.

  Homosexuality and sodomy not being sex in the spiritual context and the fact that Celibacy is silent on these, what are we accusing Kizito of at least from the perspective of a Catholic? Has Kizito really deserted his vows? Not really, he did not marry anyone, neither did he have sex. All he did was to have unnatural act.

  

• 8:45

  Maurice Ouma is Kenya's new Captain

   » ‎ Kenya Cricket
  
  Cricket Kenya have today released the squad to travel to Ireland along with the new appointments for Captain and Vice Captain. In a move that was guessed at by only 2% of the readership of this blog, Kenya's new Captain will be Maurice Ouma (Right) with Jimmy Kamande acting as Vice Captain. It is a bold decision by Kenya's selectors and is certainly made with an eye on the future as both players are likely to be around for a long time yet.
  
  There is only one change to the rest of the 15 man squad with Rajesh Bhudia making way for the in-form David Obuya to return to national colours. Ragheb Aga, who has been in fine wicket taking form and Peter Kituku are the two other players who could count themselves unlucky to have missed out. Aside from the captaincy, this is a squad that contains few surprises. David Obuya brings much needed depth to the batting while the recent form of Lameck Onyango (Ngoche) allows the selectors to sacrifice a bowler in order to do this. As announced earlier, Andy Kirsten will travel as coach for the Intercontinental Cup tie and the one day series which will consist of three games rather than two as initially thought.
  
  Full squad:
  
  1. Morris Ouma (Captain)
  2. Jimmy Kamande (Vice Captain)
  3. Kennedy Obuya
  4. Alex Obanda
  5. Steve Tikolo
  6. Collins Obuya
  7. Thomas Odoyo
  8. Nehemiah Odhiambo
  9. Lameck Ngoche
  10. Peter Ongondo
  11. Hiren Varaiya
  12. Rakep Patel
  13. Elijah Otieno
  14. Seren Waters
  15. David Obuya
  
  Further comment to follow shortly.
  
  Photo courtesy of Joseph Mutisya.Become a fan of Kenya Cricket.com on facebook: [www.facebook.com]

• 4:36

  Ninja Obama Wastes a Marauding Fly With One Lightning Strike

   » ‎ Mauri Yambo
  Here, have a look at the big swat
  
  For our very own Macharia Gaitho's tongue-in-cheek, "iko kitu", word-picture of the whole "Sagana": Click here
  
  Need I say more? Go bro [rpc.technorati.com]

  
  

• 4:35

  African women being sterilized without their consent

   » ‎ Black Looks
  Something many have suspected has now come to light as the International Community of Women Living with HIVAids (ICW) prepares to sue the Namibian government over 15 cases for the forced sterilization of women. Forced sterilizations have also taken place in the DRC, Zambia, South Africa. In South Africa there are cases of [...]

• 4:22

  Acolyte GIves A Drug PSA

   » ‎ My part of the world.......
  
  
  Yes I have tried it and yes I did inhale. That is my declaration, what am I talking about? Herb/weed/ganja/shtundu or whatever you call it. Given the number of times I have smoked, I am far less than even a casual user and some of the experiences have been interesting while others, not so much.
  
  The first time.....
  
  The first time I was in College. I had gone on a retreat of sorts organised by an organization that brings together College students that are interested in Business/Marketing that kind of thing.
  
  We stayed in Naivasha or Nakuru, my memory is hazy on that one (yes I know I just set myself up). What I do recall is that the facility was beautiful and was very close to nature, so it wasn't strange to see gazelles and the like on the compoud. We would have sessions related to the organiztion and goals during the day and then let loose at night.
  
  As always when you have such trips there are people who tag along who do more night activities than day activities and so anyway we were at pool side after a long night of drinking and partying and a dude I knew pulls out a blunt and the fun began. So after playing "pass the dutchie...," the herb began to kick in so it was laughter all around. The funniest thing though is that there was a tape I had of Tupac and the outlawz playing, so I was asked who they were and all I could say at the point in time was, "ni mabeshte wa Tupac." Needless to say this elicited alot of laughter and I was reminded about it for months on end.
  On the other hand I didn't partake with them the next 2 nights we were there but it seems that things got off the chain the other nights. I recall complaints about shoe prints on the ceiling of the room among other things. What was worse is that we had arrived their in the bus of CUEA (Catholic University of East Africa) so the management assumed that we were all students of CUEA and they were banned from the establishment. So to CUEA folks I say pole sana.
  
  After this I then entered a long hiatus before the next encounter......
  Next week: Substandard weed and other things

• 2:07

  Laws and Ambition

   » ‎ Startups in Kenya

  Tags:  entrepreneur challenges  

  This year I celebrate my 10th anniversary since finishing high-school. Yes, for those who want to count, it was 1999, when I finally lifted the yoke that is high school off my shoulders. It's also been ten years where I've been able to forget most of the millions of pieces of data I stored in my brain for examination on topics as varied as photostatic conductors, wheat farming in Siberian tundra, morphological features of fish, and calculus.
  
  That last one though (calculus) I continued to study even in the real world (apparently anything you experience while in school, under 18, and on your parent's allowance is not the real world, but a fictional world created to get you employable skills). Well, maybe not the actual formulae, but calculus dealt with curves. One curve I became familiar while studying law was the curve of diminishing ambition.
  
  You see when you join law school, you feel like you are on top of the world. Heck, you must be one of the brightest minds in the land to get admitted, and law is usually chosen by pretty ambitious students. It is not uncommon to find 99% of the 1st year law school class with dreams of grandeur. Speaker of the National Assembly, Special-Rapporteur at the UN, President of the Republic, Chief Justice, Attorney General, Celebrated Trial Lawyer. The list is endless and only limited by the effort taken to actually establish the seniority of the position. As the semester progresses and you ferociously consume case law, volumes of law books, and professors' lectures, your ambitions are even more amplified. You gauge your progress by the number of questions you ask, and how many cases you can remember, sometimes how many House of Lords quotes you can recite verbatim.
  
  However by the time your first year results are in, and for the first time in your life you get a C or worse, you realize that your goals might be a tad bit ambitious. Instead of the best lawyer in the world, you mentally settle for best lawyer in Kenya. A few more grades and your expectations of achievement drop to best lawyer in your firm. The curve which had only been going up now starts leveling off. By mid of second year after a string of horrifyingly bad grades you are looking at being best lawyer in your office... an especially steep drop if you are the only lawyer in your office. The only solace is that grades pick up towards the end but not after a battering of your ambitions (leads me to suspect these seesawing grades are engineered by the law professors to ensure our heads remain small enough to pass through the lecture hall doors)
  
  In the end I skipped the whole lawyer thing and decided to be an 'entrepreneur' (in quotes because I'm not really sure if it that is a profession). I have discovered however that as an entrepreneur, ambition and a healthy dose at that, is an absolute necessity. Ok, by now I've stopped imagining that I will become the richest man in the world (advancing years and my geographical place of birth being my largest obstacles) unless I discover an unlimited energy source (actually, why not?) but I do not stop yearning to grow my businesses to be bigger and better.
  
  In the 'real world' I have had to go back to the drawing board more than once on several businesses, I have seen projects with significant investments of time, money and effort crumble into nothingness, had 'surefire-guaranteed-clients-with-only-one-signatory-remaining-to-sign-the-cheque vanish in an instant and stop responding to calls or emails. I have had a much rougher time than I ever did in law school. But if there is one thing I learnt in law school about ambition, is that it should only go one way - up.
  
  Ambition should not be determined by external factors like grades which can be engineered, but must always race ahead of your achievements. Ambition is the anti-depressant that combats the cynicism, failures, economic recessions, family problems, and fatigue that accompany all entrepreneurs in their path to build a successful business. Ambition is what gives us the spirit to have a victorious minute in the morning, every morning. Ambition keeps us reflective of the past, eager for the now, and focused on the future. To be ambitious is not to reach for the stars, to be ambitious is to ask "why stop there?"
  
  I salute all ambitious entrepreneurs today with special mention to Annabell Wanjiku the founder of AFRI Business Development Consultancy

• 0:16

  Vision Delivery Secretariat: Huh?

   » ‎ Kenyanentrepreneur.com

  Tags:  Kenyan Politics/Business  

  Send this article to Twitter!Folks, I’ve been experiencing visions ever since I read this announcement in the standard: “Kibaki has appointed 40 year old Mugo Kibati as Director General of the Vision Delivery Secretariat.” At first glance, the appointment sounds like you are reading an announcement from Che Guevarra’s revolutionary poetry: Director Generals, secretariats, from [...]