Excellent

We have blogged several times about our president and most times about the negative things that we hope he could change. But this past day, his returning 8 fuel guzzlers to the dealers because they were irregularly acquired is out of this world. That single action made me proud to be a Kenyan. I hope there will be a follow up disciplinary action on the people who wanted to con comfort the emperor!

Great waste of our time dear shepherds!

Each time i see our men and women of the pulpit call a press conference or invite the media to cover their blame of the political leaders for the problems we have, i simply switch off or change channels. Indeed each time i see these people am acutely reminded of everything that has gone wrong with our society. These men and women are the strongest reminder of the collective failure of our people to create a nation. They remind me everyday of my anger and hopelessness that even though almost each of the mainstream churches has celebrated a century of mission work in the country, they have failed to make our people see themselves as one and that our individual and collective difference in language, tradition and culture threaten us so much that we can never trust one another.

Yet every time its convenient, they come together and incite us to action. which action they know for sure that they are not ready to help us see to the end.

But my disdain of these people did not come yesterday, it did not even come last year when they burried their heads in the sand if not openly supporting their tribesmen and proding them to further negative action. it did not even come in 2007 when certain bishops openly took partisan or should we say tribal positions on every single issue.

my frustration started in 1997 when i first realised that all was lose talk. that at the bottom of it they teach us to love our neighbours but in reality they mean our selves and those who speak a language we understand.

These days they keep on blaming the politicians for not giving direction and not uniting the country. today they really do blame Raila and Kibaki for all the failures and they call all MPs to resign and seek fresh mandate. They conveniently forget that they have had longer time to unite the country, they have longer reach since they represent the most devine power. they even dont have our mandate but they have our unquestioning loyalty and faith. But how have they used all these opportunities? more than 100 years. they have failed on one single supreme law of the Lord they serve and vicar. that of loving the Lord with all your heart sould and mind and loving your neighbour as you love yourself.

The men of the pulpit have never approached me for my signature to complain about the govt. but for sure should any one of them bother, i will do them a great favor and tear into pieces even the papers which alread have other such wasted signatures.

Of Ministers and University

A new bill is in the offing to force the president of the republic to appoint only men and woman of higher learning to the head ministries. A number of people are happy with this proposition but am just wondering, how will that work if there is no equal provision for the head of government and HOS to also have the degree?

Further when I read this news item, my mind was quickly taken back to my village and I remembered my good cousin Otieno. A simple young man of very modest education. Otieno only sat for class 8 after which he had to go to town (Nairobi) to look for work to help his siblings. Today Otieno who is much younger than me has already put up his own home, is married with 3 children and has a very stable family. Every time he comes home, teachers and local 'highly' educated individuals troupe to him for odd side jobs for a quick buck.

Then I also thought of Charity Ngilu who without a degree is quite a successful personality very principled and focused. in '97 she helped 15 men and women to see parliament some for the very first time in their lives. When she opted out of the party it died a natural death. There probably are many other examples but the bottom line is this: there are some life lessons that you don't get from the university and secondly university gives you a shortcut to knowledge but some street lessons are by far priceless and I hold that requiring a degree for ministers is not a very wise idea.

Further more in most professions mine included, industry certifications count for much more than a degree. For instance a person with CCNE or OCM certification is highly valued and their degree status will not even be considered. That's what I thought when I saw that one minister may be dropped even though he has CPA (K)!

An Age of Convinience

The age we are in is often referred to as the information age and rightly so since today information is all you need to move anywhere. but information has become so much availble that it is nolonger really an age of information. Another thing that is more important in this age is convenience. I think we are currently living in an age of convinience. people want what they want but conviniently. Take phones for instance. who wants to keep on looking for keys to press to click and so on? People want touch phones with sensitive screens and shortcuts. And it doesn't matter the kind of phones the conveniences must be there.

Luckily all sorts of phones which are preferred by the majority are available with all these conveniences be they nokia touch phones or sumsung touch phones. What would you say to additional convinience of getting all this in all the colors you prefer, networks that you prefer and also in convinient monthly payments? When you add the free gifts that go with this purchase you get the absolute convininence on a variety of touch phones

The more they change ...

They say that the more things change the more they remain the same. But this statement may be exaggerated or maybe meant only for those who never look for the change or see the change. I have been reading a lot of comments about UKs budget proposal last week. I have also heard those comments or watched them. For starters the media stations were almost predictable in their reactions. KTN and group were almost expected to punch large holes into the thing. They did not disappoint. Another station Kiss Fm which has successfully converted into a book of lamentations also did us proud and went the pessimist way. they are these days good at telling us all the bad things that are happening in our country and why we can never be any better. am tired. just tired. Nation media as is charasteristic was middle ground and reserved but it was citizen which was full of optimism. In fact citizen has introduced a new refreshing segment for the weekend which talks a lot about wealth creation and who owns Kenya. its a very uplifting segment.

But what do i like about the UK budget? mostly the CDF. every time I think about it. CDF is a master piece and a silencer to those who always blames marginalization for the lack of development. granted it aint enough but like it is said in the bible, those who cant budget with 10 bob can also not budget with 100 bob. They are the people who always see the glass as half empty all the time as opposed to half full. in fact in Kenya there is a third group who say that the glass is too big else it could be full!

its all about making the most with what you have and so probably the whiners will whine for kingdom come and the optimists will prosper even in times of peril.

On another note, my catholic church is of late getting very high media attention for its dogma on celibacy and priesthood. they say priests need to marry so that they become sexually responsible. that argument makes me sick because it reduces the institution of marriage to a mere sexual union. there is more to marriage than sex and any one who gets married to have sex has lost the plot by a long shot and will not be faithful even if he were married!!!

Beating the Slump

What is the one thing you would urgently and willingly pay for during these hard economic times? For me that would be some decent piece of information on how to go against the tide and make some good money. But what if that information was available to you for free?! What if you had an information repository that gave you fast and reliable Wholesale news and even iced it with real good tips on Wholesale sources some tips of which are as hidden to the naked eye as a needle in a hay stack?!

Well it would be just the information you would want to grab and own. And with the fiber optic cable being launched this month by our good old president, the opportunities will be amazing. With super fast internet access and real time access to vast overseas markets for e-commerce, e-support (or is it i-support). ideas on Drop ship are for sure priceless.

Like they say success is made up of some good quality education but also the kind of gut feel know how that only matures with age which calls for time. But time is what you don't have especially if you must survive the slowest economic growth since the mad days of wars, coups and counter coups. That experience from traders and business people from all the five continents on Wholesale sources would be truly invaluable. Now imagine all this is all but a click away!

What they Say and What They do

Yesterday I got a long mail forward about the risks of employing a 'housie' (or maid, house help, mboch, domestic servant etc) The story told of a girl from meru who almost killed her employer in the process of robbing her of all the household valuables. It even had an ID and photo attached. Indeed recently I have been hearing a lot of stories about these very much needed workers doing all manner of wrong things and my good friend tells me of how he used to buy extra soap every week due to this pilferage. We have always avoided having an extra help in the house and have tried to do most things ourselves but sometimes it becomes just too difficult especially with the traffic jams of Nairobi. These days the earliest you can get home is 1930hrs and the earliest you must leave the house is 0600. This means that the housie is as necessary as your own job and also that they have all the time in their hands to do all that they want in your house. You basically rely on one simple thing only: their integrity.

Integrity is a word I have blogged about several times. When I saw the mail about the meru girl, I wondered why she was being sacrificed that much. I was sad because it was the same time, the PM was being cleared of maize scandal, Uhuru was going on clean about the 'error' which her has since repeated. But why am I going on about politicians now? closer home at the place I work, I was getting sad stories of senior managers who cannot keep their hands clean and who spend all their time and skill trying to outwit the company and thereby do the same as the meru mboch, kill the company in the process of robbing it of all its valuable things. one friend confessed to me how jalous she was of a former school mate. a mere 27 year old who she was telling me was already driving a range rover sport and owning his own apartment in Kileleshwa all because of 'connections with the right people in the right places!'

When will the rain stop beating us as Kenyans? why must we continue this way and who is benefiting? There is a popular saying in kenya: Where you work is where you eat. and people have taken it literally to mean you have a carte blanche to steal from anyone and anywhere as long as you are not caught.

Away from things corruption. Yesterday I saw the news about the group of Kenyan Luo elders visiting Southern Sudan to be in touch with their brothers and sisters who remained behind and I was strangely reminded of the unity thing. the strongest unifying factor is often a common threat or even common hater. M7's careless outburst about the luo may just give a good reason for the now diverse community to unite. all the way from DRC, to TZ to uganda, Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia. Now that is one unity M7 may not really want to encourage.

But what are people saying about the Kenyan diasporians coming back to Kenya and wanting dual citizenship due to the economic downturn? They can never tough it out anywhere. They escaped to the west when things were thick in Kenya and even insulted Kenya and her governance. Now things are thick yonder and they are scampering back to relative safety!

Duty Calls

I got the now blog famous award called honest Scrap from Fanua a diasporian. And so i have to brag and do all that appertains to this degree sorry award.

1. For one I always find myself in the group of some of the most marginalized or discriminated Kenyans. Picture this: I hardly get a shoe that fits right, nor a trouser nor a suit. in fact during the Mater Heart Run last Saturday, I found out that Safaricom the shirt sponsors , had again forgotten to make a shirt that could fit me. I forced myself inside the almost 2-sizes-too-small shirt for the run. I think its time to start a maendeleo ya watu wakubwa organization.

2. Secondly I normally get that almost all my hosts cook beef for me or some beef based food. while I don't eat the stuff. Most times even in company events i get that among the snacks on the table are beef samosas, beef sausages, beef kebabs, nyama choma etc. They then claim there was a large variety of snacks!

3. Everywhere i go people always think am their tribesman. in college i even had a Kikuyu name, even at work some guys thought i was kiuk some , kamba others luhya and some even a coastal. when i went to Zimbabwe they thought i was a shona while when in down south they swore i was a Zulu. However i trust my parents.

4. Am actually a deep person and gain my strength in silence and meditation.

5. I hate Kenyan politics yet I hold two arguably political (elective) offices. I must be a walking contradiction! but the truth is i got myself into these offices by some sort of chance.

6. most people think am a great sportsman coz of my athletic build. i never help them to find out.

7. I met tribalism in its ugly sense for the first time during my first year at university. Before then I had lived in blissful ignorance in Kisumu for over 19 years. I struggled with it and it actually took me time to re-evaluate myself and accept that it wasn't me who had the problem but the tribalists who insisted on knowing my second name before having any form of engagement with me. somehow that never included asking me for my assignments!

What Others Say

This is a belated but Museveni of Uganda (ama is it ujanda) said that the jaluos will not be able to get any fish from Nam Lolwe but they could take the rocky island of migingo. But what my friends are saying is that the good old rebel was very categorical. He never said Kenyans wont be allowed to fish, he said Luos meaning the luhyas from Sio Port and other areas around the lake are welcome to continue enjoying the fleshy nile perch.

Some even say that M7 has every right to be angry with the jaluos in fact thats why he helped our own Emilio to kill those pesky citizens after the election fracas. Don't you remember him killing the jaluo president of southern Sudan Col Garang? Why, he also has first hand experience with another troublesome jaluo from Northern Ujanda. Whats more their nation of the republic of Uganda was founded by another jaluo called Obote who by his estimation plundered the country. But in another article, its reported that M7 has even bigger issues with these descendants of Sudan. And he says that it took the Ankole (meaning his ancestors) to stop the grand march of the luo. M7 asserts that anyone whose name starts with O is a luo. by extension it means nearly the whole of western Africa is luo.

But while M7 was saying that, our national chairman for maendeleo ya wanaume (someone cares for us :-)) came out to condemn the statue in front of the Nairobi high court. he says its unfair to men since its a sculpture of a young boy carrying fish (o dear fish again) and peeing in broad day light. He said that it was violation of our rights. To show that the law strips you naked and washes you clean! A woman accompanying him said it was a sinful sight. When did a picture of a naked baby boy become sinful? But others are saying that our chairman showed ignorance on national TV. He did not know the meaning of the sculpture which actually is that of the god of justice.

But that god, others say did not provide justice to Mrs. Njoya whose husband was shot dead by an aristocrat in the latters ranch. What was he doing there in the dead of the night? He was poaching. Poaching is a polite word for stealing wild animals. Only that this time the wild animals belonged to the aristocrat who keeps them for game meat and tourism. Others are saying that Njoya was doing an equivalent of cattle rustling. The young man got 8 months for his efforts, Njoya who is dead for ever will tell no tales. Though his wife was disturbingly quiet and some are saying she was promised life long financial support by the aristocrat.

Support is what one Prime minister needed to clear his and his family's names from the maize scandal. By the way in luo culture, Raila's sin of stealing maize is very bad. (raila okwalo oduma (or raila okwalo kuon))!!! sounds terrible especially when your people are starving. But he had to get support after helping another present day aristocrat a Mr. Uhuru to escape the noose!

Of city bylaws and church charges

I learn new things everyday but I wasnt a bit prepared for what I got to learn this past weekend.

That there is a city council by-law that prohibits fixing a clogged sewage system. you have to report it to city council and even though they take a month to get fuel for their car to come and inspect so that they can assign a technician to fix it, you must not try and fix it yourself. You have to put up with the threat of diseases, foul smell and everything between for that long.

That all roads and by ways belong to the council and you must not try to level them, or fill the portholes or do anything equivalent or close to making the roads passable.

That you must not plant a tree or flower on any place outside of your compound unless with express authority from the city council.

That if the grass outside of your home is grown or if the bushes are dangerously thick and could harbor car-jackers. That you mustn't touch it. (my cousin tells me in the US of A you can be arrested for not mowing your lawn :-) )

That You cant dig a flood trench or repair a clogged one unless you are a charity organization authorized by the city engineer.

That getting the city engineer in his office requires loads of prayers, good luck charms and precision timings all rolled into one!

But on another note, the new Catholic Cardinal Njue has taken church fund raising to a new level. They started by charging faithfuls to use the basilica toilets (though we actually raised funds to construct them) and I made all the noise I could about how inane this idea was. But now they are actually charging the faithfuls to pack in the yard. So its as if you have to pay gate fees to attend mass!