Thursday, March 29, 2007

shocking end week of march

this week i have got a number of shocks that have left me speechless

first shock, i went to isich (i cant spell the correct name). the place where Kenyan Somalis ,Iraqi Somalis, al qaeda Somalis,American Somalis, Somali Somalis and just ordinary Somalis have turned into a trade haven. am told that they are like nakumatt, you need it, they have got it. in fact when my phone was stolen, in 2005, it was first traced to isich. here you can get a gun at only 1000 bob, they have some of the most advanced communications equipment which they use to communicate with outside world especially Canada. (am told Canada is the other leading Somali nation) at this place, there are even full time 24/7 brothels, the houses are paid almost a year in advance and the people are basically doing a roaring business almost in every sector. am also told that telkom have a special exchange in this parts and safaricoms biggest customer base (in terms of revenue) is isich. however i discovered that the road network in this 'country' is totally non existent, the mini buses just struggle slowly and meander around each other like snakes. i was told to watch the pocket keenly and also watch out for anyone looking suspicious. it appears that the people in isich are in another country as they have their laws, their currency replete with exchanges and all, they have their own telecommunication system or course in addition to the Kenya ones and so on. why does our government allow this to happen?

second shock, the media was full of reports of a group of thugs calling themselves mungiki who terrorize people and levy 100/= from every matatu plying certain routes. they also strip women in trousers and rape others on top of circumsicing them. i don't know why the media still dignifies these thugs by calling them a sect. the thugs now want 250 shillings everyday from every matatu ! thats a whoping 90,000 /= per year. for what? just for being a thug. in my vocabulary that is called robbery. even the govt does not take that in taxes. however what is more shocking is that the government of national unity, or the government of mwai wa kibaki is saying nothing , hearing nothing and doing nothing. (by the way how come we don't have a government of kenya these days?)

however before i could say the word shock, jimnah mbaru, a 'respected' investor in the Kenyan and African market circles comes up and sayts he market will get jittery in case ODM Kenya does not sambaratika! he explained that the market expects the party to disintegrate and that if it did not, the market may collapse. in other words he is saying that ODM unity is bad for the market. i cant even dignify that with a comment but what was more shocking was the fact that the chairman steered clear of the ills facing the NSE. he said nothing about the brokers who are stealing from investors and never mentioned or even suggested what needed to be done to them. he refused to comment on the credibility crisis that even the nation media group gave an editorial yesterday!

and by the way, is Mt. Elgon really in Kenya? it appears that as far as the GNU is concerned, the western boundaries of Kenya are in nakuru, looks like the New Kenya is just central province and Nairobi only

another shock? have you seen how mugabe is treating opposition members, and have you seen how the common mwananchi is suffering down there? and is there anything more shocking than the silence of African leaders including mbeki who is his next door neighbor?

and is the news about the government of Kenya looking to privatize telkom Kenya annoying or is it just me?

and curving out geothermal business from kengen after it was sold to the public, is that not a shocking robbery with violence? thats after they refused to make KPLC pay the correct fees to kengen. Kenyans were conned!

however on a better note, the index is slowly showing signs of recovery with most counters recording significant gains during the week. however the significant issues that have come up, need addressing. lawyer and legislator Paul Muite has taken it up and i just hope for the best.

7 comments:

  1. About isich, I've always wondered whether there are econ stats on that side of the country and it's impact on Kenya's finances. I've always figured that despite it being a tax haven (enforcing ETR and other KRA requirements might be difficult), that the isich economy brings quite a bit of forex (legality not questioned). Any ideas?

    As for nse, we can all breathe a sigh of relief, and for those who took the risk and bought during the bear season, time to make a kill!

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  2. Odegle - If the area contributes taxes then they deserve better roads...

    BUT I have a strong hunch that for all the posturing by the KRA, they stay clear of Isich...

    So no or little taxes are collected from that area...

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  3. This is my thought - the who's who in Isich have top Kenya Police officials or top government officials in their pocket. Somebody's getting a cut here. There's no way a republic within a republic can see such economic explosion without raising questions - somebody is getting paid. Same goes for Mungiki.
    As far as Jimnah Mbaru's comments, read the whole Q&A transcript from the luncheon and you'll see that the ODM question was just one out of many that he answered. He even addressed the FT issue but NMG did not address this. NMG just picked one issue and spun it to create discord. That's not responsible journalism, but on the other hand, they are in the business of selling papers. Controversy sells.

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  4. isich...goodness, didnt know it had gotten to that level. seems like another place all together.govt is not serious!and the thing is they know about all those black market activities!
    ditto on the mungiki story. its quite scary, what they are getting away with.
    what mugabe is doing is atrocious. when i saw tsvangirai with enough bruises on tellie i could'nt believe it and yet mugabe, all 80yrs of him, is beeing presented as the next candidate

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  5. @mwasjd the government of Kenya, does not get any tax from isich, i bought stuff there and they didn't have the ETR. most of their goods come in duty free too.
    @coldi, welcome back, long time no see. coldi i think we need to sort out the roads in isich and claim back that place as part of Kenya. currently its another state

    @no-spin , i cant agree with you more on the issue of responsible journalism. however jimnah should not have said that still

    @min shady , next time you come to Kenya, i will take you to that part of Africa to see for yourself, its not Kenya!

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  6. Odengle you must be a 'babi' from westie with the way you describe isich.I grew up in isich and believe me, its not that bad.You describe it like its in mogadishu or something.

    isich contributes tremendously to our economy by putting pressure on wahindi in tao from fleecing us.its also the only 24/7 business area in Kenya and should be emulated.

    As for brothels, there was one right accross the street from my former chuo(St. Teresa's Boys) and guys would sneak for a quickie durring lunch time.and they had supuu chiles(ethipians,somalis and eritreans).these kuros are cheaper than F2 kuros and you get your money's worth.guys check it out.

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  7. Odegle- I studied in Isich High, and your description of Isich and your attitude towards Isich is just warped. It seems you were born and raised in Muthaiga and you only shop in Village Market. You are just wrong about Isich, I agree the place is abit of a mess but it is a super business hub in Kenya and Nairobi's landscape would be completly different without Eastleigh.
    Your Political study of Southern African Politics also leaves alot to be desired. Your source of information regarding Zimbabwe is also far fetched. Go back to your history books and learn about the agreement between the U.K and Zimbabwe in 1982 during Zims independence before you start accusing Mugabe of all sorts of ills.
    If you think about it carefully, you will realise that all economy's in the world are controlled by the west and because Mugabe decided to fight for the rights of his people(land), he is all of a sudden being turned into a mordan day hitler. Prior to 1990 before Mugabe started demanding for Zim farm lands to be handed back to local Zimbabweans, the British used to Praise him as one of Africa's best leaders, but as soon as he asked about the land then he became the devil reincarnate, what rubbish. Land is the single most significant resource that a country can have because without land you won't even have a country to begin with. You can't mine because you don't have land. You can't farm or do anything else for that matter. Mugabe's systems might not have gone down well with the British but South Africa's way of handling the same is not help black people non whatsoever. I now live in RSA and I can tell you that most Black people in this country could realy use Mugabe's style of intervention because for them things are so bad that they could not possibly get any worse.
    Unlike you, President Mbeki and other African leaders know African Politics and Histroy and that is why their actions have been very calculated.

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