Friday, February 09, 2007

...of weekends and leisure times

another weekend is here. but this is not going to be a good one. in fact most nairobians are increasingly finding it hard to while away the long weekends. kenyans way of whiling away time had been laid out easily until the bovine disease checked in. hitherto, all you needed was enough quid for 2 kilos of nyama choma, enough for beer and some friends then the weekend would pass unnoticed while you watch premier league on big screen! in fact in hope nairobians will now find a better pastime than eating nyama choma and premier league soccer while the RVF threatens meat lovers away. i always find it boring that departmental get togethers invairably have beer and nyama choma. there are other ways like going to the theatre, nature walks, picnics and even outdoor games. but those are unnairobian.

if you are a nairobian and you dont watch pirated copies of 24 and prison break then you cant be counted. however there are more refreshing DVDs from kenya institute of education. they normally video tape all those drama festivals pieces including dances and all. in fact yu can tell them to customize the DVD for you so that you get upto 8 hours of high quality kenyan music and drama entertainment or watch plays of your favorite schools. that will cost you only between 600 and 1000 bob. if you watch those national fetival winners, you will be shocked (pleasantly) that you are a kenya. it will make you have a reason to jivunia kuwa mkenya!

but on another note, butcheries are for the first time running a promotion. buy 1 kilo of meat and get 1/4 kilo free! RVF has scared all meat eaters and chicken is almost becoming extinct in these parts. i heard fish is going like water. where butcheries were selling 100kilos a day, they can now manage only 20 kilos and so on. however the bovine virus is not letting up and the other day even a vet who performed post mortem on one of the animals succumbed.

Elsewhere, security or lack of it is threatening to roll back all the gains of the kibaki administration. i read in horror that the UN had given its warning on the situation to its employees. this is happening at a time when the UNEP is being considered for relocation to europe. the UN said that the kenyan authorities did not have the capacity to deal with crime in the country. probably what we lack is the will. the other day, the police commissioner came on TV and he kept on going on and on that they are understaffed and under equiped thats why they cant stop crime. but the last time i checked, policemen with guns were arresting pple as young as 16 for not having ID cards! if they were truly understaffed, you would expect the commisioner to put them to better use than looking for pple manga mangaring. i know in the slums , young pple are sometimes arrested on the way to or from the duka sometimes carying cooking fat or unga. while thugs are killing pple on the roads. on another note, i wanted to ask Ali, who appears to be a gentleman, why he accepted the appointment even though he knew he did not have the training or the experience for the job. but i couldnt get through. in fact i wanted to put it to him that his being plucked from a diff force caused morale crisis in the police force. because by that, Kibaki was sending a signal that he did not have confidence on anyone else in the police. time has come for africans to take self responsibility. u dont just take up and job and sit on it for the sake. if you cant do it, leave it to those who can.

but while that was going on, the NSE was experiencing a beating and pple were fleeing like mice from a sinking ship. good news is the bottom seems to have been hit and the motion is back up.

odegle tip in a long long time! --- huge capital gains are more likely in less developed and unstable markets like USE and even zimbabwe. high returns do not necessarily mean better economy. the high risk high return principle is really true. the ugandan bourse is doing quite well as in the kenyan counterpart. short term falls should not worry you unless yu see a reall danger like war, or increased cost of business.

12 comments:

  1. On insecurity, pls check out joshmwangi.blogspot.com GIVE WANAINCHI GUNS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES.

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  2. are u sure? so u want us to have 30 million guns? how many women, men and children will be killed due to domestic squables. and will the thugs give you time to cock your gun let alone withdraw it? why do we always avoid the govt. what is the role of govt if they cannot provide even basic functions. why do u pay taxes then why do u vote them in. why?

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  3. True that about Nairobiuans watching pirated copies of 24 and Prison break.
    Outdoor sports are restricted to Non-black Kenyans and rich black kenyans.I have never understood why i should sit in one place all wknd watching a foreign game(Premiership) and downing copious amounts of beer and nyama choma.

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  4. ON Feb 8 while watching On The Money on CNBC(cnbc.com) Kenya, Ghana and India were mentioned as potential invesments for private equity and others.
    The only problem is that there are considered unfavorable for foreign investors due to corruption and insecurity.
    But it's good to know American investors are watching our market.

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  5. pesa tu .. your comment is a great relief. to me i thought i was the only one who felt different!

    Anon ...quite refeshing. we really need to do something about thoe twin vices

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  6. The dvds from KIE can be found where? For me I figure the only place you can get origi dvds is a reputable video lib or the media stores.

    Life without nyam chom is uchungu, but like bird flu, I'm sure this too will pass. In the meantime, I vibed a vet friend of mine and she was categorical that I keep away from livestock meat. PERIOD!

    As for insecurity, it's crazy but I don't think the advisories were waranted. We are still far from the situations in Colombia and South Africa, but no running away from the issue. Ali and his mboyz must take their game to a higher level. And I agree, we don't need guns...

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  7. mwasjd the problem with KIE is that they do not sell these DVDs in the bookshops! maybe this is an area i can agree with coldtusker that KIE may need to be privatised. but when you go to KIE itself, you can get tapes , CDs and even DVDs of whichever competition. either music or drama festivals. they have all of them their. and you will be suprised that the quaility too and workmanship is very very good. they have very good video cameramen. all those masterpeices are in the archives!

    i have never supported those advisories on security. but the problem we have in kenya is that no place is safe. in SA for instance, there are no go zones like hillbrow where guns are all over but when u are in rivonia or sandton, you feel pretty safe.

    have u noticed that chicken tastes funny these days? too much growth feeds!

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  8. Hillbrow is not a bad place as long as u don't cross anyone's line and so is any other place in South Africa. Wherever u live be it Sandton, Rivonia, Randburg, Alexandria or Ivory Park, Soweto or any other place in South Africa, if you don't mess anyone up, you are safe but if you do, no matter how posh the area you live in is, someone will somehow get you. I've been working in Hillbrow since 1995 and I love it. In kenya the thugs are killing like they've been send to wipe out the nation. Its worse than South Africa

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  9. i have just got another alert from nation media that thugs blocked kikuyu road for 3 hours this morning and killed a man and his son, carjacked several motorists and robbed a number of pple! now tell me where in the world would that happen for 3 hours? kikuyu township is only about 15Kms from nairobi city centre! Do you think there is a government in this country? do we still blame american govt for warning its citizens?

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  10. In your ealier post on Elections, I said bring in the Army, Airforce, GSU, Immigration to clean up this mess. Mr. Kibaki, are listening or do you want all foreigners based in your country to leave? You have security 24/7 but what about the people who voted for you and those who didn't? How does a father sleep at night when he knows his son or his daughters life is in danger? You are a parent for God's sake do something. There's enough blood shed but for what???? I don't have the answer man

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  11. Od, that story abt Kikuyu-do u know if its on the main Naivasha-Kikuyu-Nai road? If it is, that is just hard to take. I know the cops and Roocy's hubby are sleeping on the job, but thats too much!

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  12. mainat ... you get it! it was on that road, mr ali came again on KTN and was talking very casually about the issue. in fact he said it was a non issue. according to him only 4 major incidences have occured since the begining of the year!

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