late toast

something went unnoticed or maybe lets say something went unfeted. the NSE finaly truly electronic and via WAN and thereby paved the way for online trading of shares at the bourse. It really does make me proud to be kenyan. and as that was going on, MSC shares were finally uploaded in the accounts and are now available for trade. the prices will go down temporarily as the market reacts to oversupply but thats no cause for alarm, the firm is putting they multi billion project on full gear. things are looking up

interesting show at alliance

the comedy or is it tragedy of the Narc administration (Kibaki leadership) from its founding days before the 2002 poll through the historic loss in '05 to date is captured equally comically at the alliance francais de Nairobi. the published cartoons from leading caricaturists from Paul kelemba to my man favorite Gathara. its actually history in the eyes of the artists and its very aptly captured. a new artists whom i did not quickly recognize from his signature has very comically captured PNU's campaign strategy. they have a seemingly iconic statue of Raila surrounded by PNU strategists, vomiting on it , throwing dirt and all sorts of things on the statue. as if to mean that PNUs manifesto only offers kenyans Raila bashing and no more.

and more is going on for artists, the newly opened wasinii restaurant is very tastefully decorated. with real nice table designs and great ambiance. but the fact that the packing is charged so highly may deny them customers. who wants to relax in a pub knowing full well that at the end of his 'rest' he will pay more at the gate. otherwise the patronage is still many young and aspiring thespians all of whom turned to look at me when i entered the joint.

for better relaxation maybe you try the new sherlocks inn at the nakumatt lifestyle. maybe they read my blogs and have greatly changed the place. its beautifully decorated and have hot rods band performing only that the paint is still fresh and quite revolting.

back to arts , you can catch Eric Wainaina's production Lwanda the Gheto story at the breaburn. and if you pay for that you get another musical completely free! Heartstrings ensemble is also preparing their show 'Please call me starting this weekend. Tax for either shows : 500 /= only

brain v/s brawn

one would argue that its only the curse on Britain in the recent past to lose everything they want dearly as far as sports is concerned that contributed to the demolition of their great hope, the much hyped 'Hitman' Hatton last Saturday. the strong nation have lost a rugby world cup, UEFA champions slot, cricket test matches, car races, IRB series (to kenya of all the people!) and even the loud mouthed Morinho!

However watching the fight of the decade the other day, it was clear that the Briton was upto a very skillful fighter. in fact to me the most skilful i have ever seen. it reminded me of a fight between a merekat and a cobra. the american let his challenger do all the work. exhausting himself by running around the ring, throwing seemingly dangerous heavy punches which did not land on any target. meanwhile mwayweather, would hit Hatton's face at will with sharp heavy punches. after the 3rd round the briton was wasted. in fact i was surprised that he survived those punches till the 10 round. all those loud mouthed brittons who thronged the arena chanting as if it was a soccer match were dumbfounded. but the challenger paid tribute to the best in the world for handing another defeat to deflate further an already wilting national pride.

but to me the fight was a great lesson on how to defeat raw power. unbridled ferocious charge of energy!

Kuresoi

I stand accused and i plead guilty. my head is bowed in screaming shame. my heart bleeds and i feel my shoulders hanging weak in the air coz my bones want to flee. no one wants to be part of this failure.

I went to a place called maela past olenguruone just after finishing school. a friend of mine from that area had suggested that i would make a perfect teacher (somehow i was a star back in college days) and he wanted me to teach the young people in his home area. it was a long bumpy ride but the landscape was to die for . literally. the rolling land, the green country side, the sweet smell of fertility and humus in the air was unspeakable.

after the long ride we arrived in a catholic church where i was to teach. we were welcomed very warmly by an old white catholic priest. he loved me at once. my friend introduced me well and stated his desire. the priest took a long deep breath sighed and then asked us to take a bath. we would talk after dinner.

after dinner the priest looked at me with rather a long face, i knew things weren't well. he said he liked me alright and had heard about my faith and participation in the church. (my friend had been the chairman of our church group) he also liked my grades but he would not allow me to work there. he said the situation was very fluid. the security was bad and my not knowing either of the local language would put me in a very bad situation. so the following day they both escorted me to the bus to get back to my relatively secure place at the lake side

that was about a decade ago. elections had been done. but the volatility continued unabated. it was the time when the kikuyus around kerio valley were taken to the crocodile infested river kerio and ordered to jump in. (river kerio is a deep gorge river with very steep banks. you cant climb out) there was a sad tale about one young man who landed on a rock so the crocs did not get him at first. when help came, the people threw a rope down to him. but when he was being pulled out one crocodile got hold of his leg and there ensued a struggle between his rescuers and the beast down. of course it was no fairy tale and the corodile won.

this year the situation looks worse. i have since started a blog. yet in all these times, have given Kuresoi a huge silence. for that matter, like the catholic fathers taught me, i have sinned by ommision, by silence and by burying my head in the sand.

however the situation in kuresoi, mt elgon etc are a crying shame to all of us who have chosen to be buried in the politics of hatred, in the business of investments and so on.

good times beget hard times

the woes that come with a strong currency continued to be felt across the board. the trend globally has been to weaken home currencies in order to make exports attractive. but for a net importer with huge foreign debts, maybe strengthening the currency would work better. however today bdafica already reports that property owners are up in arms over the losses attributed to currency fluctuations. those who pay their rents in dollars are laughing all the way while their landlords cry foul.

but am not sure whether KQ is also suffering the same fate. However if word going around is anything to go by then it appears they just flew into turbulent winds. a colleague of mine tells me of a flight where KQ promised them continental breakfast only to be served with tea and bread. the entertainment unit wasn't working and the ambiance was stuffy. many are the stories doing rounds that their domestic flights keep on getting canceled at the last minute and passengers shifted to other carriers. some people suggest they are facing the problem of uchumi (unbridled expansion) while others contend that the cost cutting measures were too extreme and have therefore compromised service.

and while that is going on, nation media group may be facing a second readers boycott in 3 years. the last time readers boycotted the paper was in 2005 when they were accused of open bias towards the yellow team. the group had to do intensive door to door marketing to regain lost ground. but it seems the managers never learnt and this year they are even worse in their bias towards one side. maybe the senior managers know where the bread is buttered and also it would be better to lose a few of shareholders profits then see a brother lose an election!

Finally i got this unsolicited advice from a shrewd broda. if you have a few shillings to spare, keep it till January when poll losers will wake up to the reality of school fees, rent arrears, debts and all their relatives. at that time they will find it easiest to dispose of their fuel guzzlers for a song. then like a scavenger, that will be your time to strike and hard!!!

Shillingi ya Kenya

the other day, a friend who works abroad and remits loads of money to help his extended family and friends back home (he actually runs the family remotely) asked me what magic the government had performed in the last few weeks to make the shilingi ya Kenya to rally so hard. i gave just two suggestions one being the Hellios deal and the other the telkom deal. i even suggested to him that if he thought things were bad then he should wait for the mother of all IPOs plus the aftermath. since all expectations is that the thing will be massively subscribed by foreigners. i doubt if they will want their money back when they fail to get their allocations. meaning their money will be floating around waiting for the secondary market. if that happens and the CBK holds its ground then the shilling may become ever much stronger.

the poor guy is crestfallen coz that means he digs deeper. but today on reading the business daily, it appears that my answer to the guy was rather simplistic. there may be many other issues in the cards. i have argued before that since we are a net importer of goods and services including education (imported even from Uganda) we are better off with a strong currency. but again thinking of those many kenyans in diaspora and the kenyan farmers, as well as tourism industry, one cant help but hope for the good (bad) old days when the shilling was approaching 100 to the dollar.

but what is happening to fuel? how come its not respecting our currency?

however for me sometimes, i forget about the issues business and just go to issues purely aesthetic. i think there is something soul lifting about having a strong currency or is it just me?

..the leaders we deserve

Now the nomination ghost has been laid to rest and those who won(lost) have their names of the priced paper. but in most places some question beg for answers. does PNU, the president , its leaders and all those supporters really , truly and professionally and honestly believe that Langata constituency would be served better by either Livondo who cannot read even a simple written sentence, or Waruinge whom everyone knows is guilty of senseless murders, car jacking, violent rapes, extortion and the like better than Raila Odinga? or is it just hatred? are they only out to show for a fact that hatred is the strongest force in Kenya. stronger far than even love? That they would rather the devil reins than have Raila back in parliament or as president?

What of in westlands? that the architect of the goldenberg, which to date is one of the largest known financial scams in the country, will better serve the interest of the people?


The people of Kieni showed the way loud and clear. when they rejected Murungaru who had stained the name of the president so badly as well as stain their (Kieni people) own name. they were loud in walking the talk. by rejecting Murungaru even though he was close to the president, the Kieni electorate showed much more teeth that the obscenely paid KACC officials.

Ugenya people wanted to give the same lesson. they opted to reject Ondiek who misused CDF so. and also Orengo who has taken the people for a ride for so many years. the man only comes to campaign two weeks to the elections. after which he disappears completely. nothing happens in between. and indeed he will be beaten fair and square!

Am sorely disappointed that those funny characters got the nod of top party officials including the should be gentleman Kibaki. Am hoping that The langata people would do us proud and defeat hatred come the 27th elections

am hoping that the same maturity will be replayed in all places and that people who become politicians will learn to respect Kenyans once and for all.

Disaster!

I have been struggling to find a suitable headline for this post since last Friday. that would explain why its coming almost 4 days late.

the things that were done by the so called political parties in the past 3 days to me have neither description nor a name. from Ugenya where 29 year old Steve Mwanga who won by a near landslide even though his name was mysteriously missing from the ballot paper and was later 'disqualified' to Kuria where Chacha Mwita was denied the certificate, got it then lost it again in a span of 24 hours the thing was unspeakable and am not disappointed, am angry.

Dan shikanda was robbed in broad daylight in makadara as was Amin walji in westlands, Barak Muluka in khwisero and so on. the 'nominations' were difficult to conduct first because it was being done by amateurs we understand but then why on earth did they set the final day as the day for it? that in itself was a sign of intent to rig. PNU used the services of the experienced and organized ECK but after the verdict was out, they shamelessly altered the results without a tinge of guilt and handed the losers the priced certs. and the council member one Mr. Nyamweya had the audacity to threaten Safina which had offered the aggrieved parties some sort of lifeline.

but anyway why am i foaming in the mouth? Mr Moi had one time said that KANU iko na wenyewe. which meant that democracy was as strange in that party as an igloo in kenya. the truth be told, we hardly have any political parties in kenya and the events of the weekend rightly point so. to start with, the voters should remember that they were not required to have a membership card. meaning that they did not have a say. anyone was welcome to walk in and vote as long as you were a kenyan above 18. so it means that we dont have a choice really. either put up, shut up or step! these parties have their owners.

but in Nyanza, true to their nature, the voters took kajwang's song literally and refused to sleep. they showed that '...mapambano bado yako' they refused to be used to rubber stamp those chaos in the name of nominations and insisted that the genuine winners must be re-instated. the party HQs have relented but may be as they say alea jecta est.

am sad for Mwanga. he was a beacon of hope in ugenya whose politics have been ruined by one man and his brother in law for miaka nenda miaka rudi. the man has done a lot for the people, with the people and through the people despite his youth. but my good old friend Kodhek once told me that you cannot stop a young person whose will is strong and is on his way to success. there must still be hope for Ugenya, Mwanga and others like him.

however every cloud has a silver lining and the events proved one Kalembe Ndile right that you dont need a degree to succeed in life (or maybe life in kenya) all you need is a party called TIP to rescue powerful losers and weak winners

Matiba

Seeing Kenneth Njindo Matiba last week presenting his papers almost evoked tears in my eyes. the man who in his years was an organizational, business and political masterpiece was a crying shame as he struggled to get his way to the ECK. and he could not read the pledge let alone sign his papers. yet 15 years after he was literally rigged out of victory by a combined force of Mwai Kibaki and Moi, the man says he feels much better. actually Matiba always says he is much better every time he comes on TV. Kibaki was tactfully sent out by Moi at that time to make sure Matiba never won the election, the remaining votes were stolen, Oginga was confined after FORD split and the rest was history.

yet some bloggers are now blaming ODM for matiba's re-emergence. but probably the man is simply bitter, that the man who made him this poor and sick is comfortably back at the helm with Kibaki the other man who denied him the win. When one sees Matiba in this state and reads about his battle with auctioneers, one cant help but remember moi in his peak as the devil incarnate. But siasa is funny. politicians quickly forgive and forget when it suits them and now even those who suffered with Matiba like Koigi wa wamwere are singing praises of Moi and insulting the other second liberation hero Raila Odinga. Wamwere's case was a sad one that led to his mother striping naked at Uhuru park to secure his release. yet now Moi enjoys all the state resources as the pseudo-president at the expense of heros like Matiba

in fact his situation is a true mockery of the honor our heros pledge. and even Dedan Kimathis statue in town is nothing. or is it that heros are only once they die?

to me the surprise appearance of Matiba was a call to reflection of the collective conscience of the people of Kenya and a strong reminder that ours is a guilty nation that has persistently ignored her true heros and rewarded collaborators and tyrants of yesteryears from as far back as independence.

24 hour business

Nakumatt has extended their 24 hour chain of supermarkets to nakumatt downtown. now 4 stores including eldoret household, ukay and prestige will be open 24 hours every day. and that concept has seen uchumi too extend their open hours to 10PM from 7:30 at least at the sarit. tuskys has also done the same. this is a relief given the stress of traffic during day hours. the only fear now is security which is a big pain everywhere in kenya and nairobi in particular. however it wont be so new since these mega stores are only joining the likes of kenchic fastfoods (actually dancing chicken) on the 24 hour economy. other sectors which have been making money in these are matatus especially the jogoo road bound, kahawa west and langata routes not to mention entertainment joints like f1&2. those that never say sleep!

but one area that cries for this concept is the port of Mombasa, its sad that with all that congestion and delays which cost traders and other importers billions of shilling in missed opportunities as well as storage costs, the port gates still close at 5PM and only open at 8. one time, my consignment was stopped at the gate ostensibly because the clock had struck 5 and the gate keeper bolted! turning the busy port to be open 24 hours daily would also greatly increase the number of jobs available and probably this would be the best place for Kalonzo to start implementing his 24hour economy.

and so be it, wonders of elections never cease, the other day i went to town and could hardly believe my eyes. the hawkers are not pledging their votes for nothing. the guys are back in swarms bigger far than locusts. every parking space, every pavement, even road spaces have been 'chalked' up by the traders. and as before they are selling anything you can imagine. 'you need it? we got it' the shopkeepers who pay an arm and a leg for the ground floor shops are crying foul. but the common mwananchi is happy since these guys dont have to pay tax, nor rent nor elec nor water. so their goods are dirt cheap so to speak.

however the crafty wahindi have known how to beat the election madness. they are giving the traders their goods for free then these guys pay in the evening or when they want more goods. the downside however is that the city that one John Gakuo struggled to beautify and keep clean is now turning to a city in the garbage just as before.

but it really doesn't matter, these guys have just about 2 months to make their hay while the campaign sun shines as they will be ruthless bundled out of town after casting their valuable votes.

million dollar question of the month: Why is it that neither South African businesses nor managers ever make it in Kenya?

value systems and insult systems

My first job in Nairobi 'jimbo' was as a computer teacher at graffins college sometimes in the late nineties. at that time, computer teachers were very much respected people, i was teaching some very simple things really like Microsoft word, excel etc. i was still quite young but my students were bit older people some from some tough offices. i remember one particular woman who took some rather uncomfortable though quite flattering liking for me. she would have some odd excuses to remain behind after class and have me hold her hand while she tried to use the mouse. it was my job to also teach the students how to hold and move the mouse anyway. well when we got rather close with this woman she started talking to me a lot about her family, her village and so on. at one point she said she wanted me to visit her people back in tigania . the only thing she feared was that i may not have been circumcised and if that were true then her dad would not have me spend the night with the other boys. i would be asked to sleep in the same hut with the goats since by their standards i was a kid. she said a lot of sorrys for saying that , which really puzzled me. it didn't matter to me whether or not someone called me a kid on the account of a loose skin. in fact by our value system, the only thing that bothered me was the prospect of being seen with this seemingly old woman. how would i introduce her to anyone who knew me. by the value systems of the place where i was born and brought up, its abominable for a young man to consort with such an old woman. i was even mortified that she had such suggestions. but to her all that mattered was my uncut status!

that was strange for me since i was a fresh college graduate and was meeting that thinking for the first time. back in college i had met many people but all that mattered was who was able to show the others how to work out calculus , Ordinary differential equations, molarity, probability and statistics and so on. the fairer sex treated all the young men the same and the man with the toughest tongue and sweetest style won the day.

be that as it may, the statement of the lady just reminded me of the time the white men came to Africa and hurled all sorts of insults. chief among them was the claim that Africans were pagans, primitive and uncultured. did that insult matter to Africans? not at all. why because, Christianity was not yet accepted in Africa so 'pagan insult' was as foreign as was Christianity western education was also lacking but there were other forms of education . thirdly most African things were very procedural, methodical and thus very cultural. after all culture is just a way of doing things. that our culture was different to theirs did not warrant an insult.

what am pointing here is that insults only work if value systems are shared. for instance, in my village i would feel really hurt if someone called me a thief, liar, coward,thug or a fool. but it will mean nothing to me to be called kihii, uncut, etc. in this country, i have traveled wide and i have met people who only need to mutilate their organs in order to be accepted in their communities. it doesn't matter whether they are rapists, murderers, rogues or just plain saints. all that matters is the genital mutilation for both men and women.

back to the woman from tigania, i never got to go to Tigania, she feared for me but it never mattered to me that i never went. i also never got to do any damage to my body in order to go after all i was already more than two decades old in this state and a proud father of two!

a nice week on november

this past week i have spent some considerable amount of time with a large American dude. What do those guys feed on back there. anyway, the guy is generally a gentle giant and was quite a company. in the short time is i have probably heard the most number of 'thank you' , 'sorry to bother you' ,'appreciated','awesome','amazing' , 'extra ordinary' and other soul lifting words in any one sitting in my life. but one other thing that made me jivunia kuwa mkenya was how the gentle giant appreciated the cup of coffee or tea each time he took one. and went on and on about just how nice the drink felt. at one point i had to take a special cup of tea just to try and get that feeling he was getting but to me it was the same old tea.

elsewhere, MSC price has dropped a massive 67% to 14 or has it? many people both in the office and elsewhere have been asking me whether its not time to sell. my simple answer has been that this is not time to sell anything. its actually a great time to buy anything. why? since for many reasons, people are selling. those who don't have confident in ODM government prospects as well as those who want to liquidate their shares to fund elections, manage inflation etc.
However on the other hand MSC is at the point of investing. any company which is in the process of expansion offers the best buy decision. you are meant to sell when a company is maturing and ripe. secondly, the price of MSC hasnt dipped, what has happened is that investors have treated the bonus as a split. so in real terms the price is still 14 x 3 = 42

another good news is that PNU has finally bitten the bullet and embraced majimbo after all. reminds me of my kids.
and now that all parties will embrace majimbo i think am spoilt for choice.

and belatedly, if you are a member of any sacco then you may want to consider participating in the private placement of CIC insurance company. the firm is being sold at quite a good discount.

in flight entertainement

the nice kenwood stereo that was thuged in thugland hasn't been replaced to date, the downside of that has been that riding in the car has been really drab and i have received both formal and informal complaints from my pre-teen daughters about it. the innocence of childhood hasn't helped matters since they wonder how come i am not acting well yet i have an ATM card. all i have to do is rush to anyone of them and draw the cash then buy new stereo. however maybe due to age, am becoming rather conservative and i have been looking for an original 3-in-one kenwood stereo from my cars vendor. the local dealers told me that would cost me a tidy sum of 60K if they are to import it for me, after that i would pay the government of national unity their VAT and car would be back with its entertainment

"but again the upside of the absence has been that i nolonger have to listen to bursted, or mwalimu kingangi or nyambane, maybe i miss the waumini choirs and the golden mix of simba fm sisi ni wewe! but in the mornings and evening, another form of entertainment has taken the place of the radio. my two nursery school kids have filled this void so well, am having second thoughts about the stereo. the entertainment is quite varied, spontaneous and never repeated. today it started with a billboard with bata's safari boot.

the boy exclaimed; "my shoe! look at my shoe"
the sister corrected, "its not your shoe"
"its mine, look at even the laces"
the sister stood her ground; "its not your shoe, it cant fit you, its too big"
"al tell dad that you are saying thats not my shoe"
"and i will tell mum that you said am in 'nyonyo class'
if you tell her, i will tell dad that you did not finish your food!"
"dont talk to me am not your friend and i will not bakisha for you my break!"

"am not talking to you me am looking at Kibaki in that big picture"
"its not kibaki its the president"
"no raila is the people's president even see its written over there"

Shock these kids can read billboards at this age! i need a refund from my teachers i was not able to read till i was well into primary school!

"stop talking to me!!!"

at this point mum who is the co-driver wants to intervene since its becoming too hot. she wants to separate the waring parties, so she suggests i stop the car and we get one kid transfered to the front seat. i respond that our car is not ready for majimbo , those guys will resolve their differences amicably in a round table! mum is says its not majimbo but 'utenganishaji', i say the change of name wont fool us, its still majimbo , the pre-teens are quite bothered, and am forced to relent. but before i can even hit the indicator to signal intention to stop, an excited scream from the rear jimbo "Mr Marangi! look at mr marangi" and the two former warlords start reciting the marangi advert rather animatedly. so no need to introduce majimbo and we proceed. at the round about another chorus;

"our car. dad that guy is driving our car!"

others burst out laughing but inside am happy that peace has been restored. there has been an IPPG kind of thing and the hitherto potentially dangerous scenario has cooled off

You see kids are like politicians, there are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends. but at this point we have reached the school and i must let off the 'car theater. i hate it since now i must go back to boredom and all those negative thoughts like the fact that rent-paying-time has arrived a reminder that 8 odd years into gainful employment am yet to get my own digz and that when i get from work, i have to park this road master in front of someone else's house!

generational gaps

there was this time, i got a visit by my young sister-in-law. just before going away, she asked to be taken out (for a dance) and her sister gave us the approval. so we set out with her in great anticipation. just the two of us. I didn't know what kind of dance she would like so, i acted like a good gentleman and asked her about her favorite music. she said she liked local music. that was good , i knew just where i would get great local music and a great crowd too! so we drove straight there and went ahead to have a great evening or so i thought. however after she went is when her sister told me how bored my sister-in-law had been than night. asking how come, she said "it was because you took her to dance to very old music and in any case its not what she had told you". but but, the music we were dancing to by the likes of dola kabarry, musa juma are the newest, in fact they are hot from the pan! but no, the issue was that i did not understand what the girl had meant by local. local musicians to her meant nonini, jua kali, nameless and such like characters! so i learnt my vital lesson that a simple term such as 'local' can have such different meanings to people separated by less than a decade age difference. i wonder which other terms would have very great difference in meanings to people separated by jubilees of age differences

the shy , the bold and the offensive

Kenya is normally divided into 3 distinct sections during any major decision making such as elections. normally there are those who are bold and pushy about what they want. then there are the offensive and emotional. this group never talks coherently about what they want, they rather normally just choose to insult the other group and say why that group must not be given what they are yearning for. then there is normally a 'third force' the middle ground group who never makes their stand known. they normally lurk in the alleys waiting to jump onto the winning wagon. this group is also a very clever group and normally offers their allegiance to the highest bidder! I hate the middle ground group.

the referendum debate was a very unfair debate and never gave the middle grounders a chance. you either ate orange or went bananas. i enjoyed it.

but there is another group i left out 'kimaksudi' , the shy group who have a stand but would not want anyone to know since they have been scolded or told that they are future leaders. some have even been told that decision making in kenya is a dirty game and must be left to dirty people. this shy group is large and have directly been responsible for letting things get out of hand. even though most of the pple in this group are very well educated, professional or successful in business and academia, they have continued to 'sin' by omission and watch as mostly 'dirty' men run this country down the drain.

it was for this reason that i supported the MPs for increasing their salaries and allowances and making the position very lucrative and attractive. my hope was that some of the shy people would be jolted into positive action. this country badly needs their leadership and insight!

My appeal to bloggers be they investment bloggers, entertainment or whatever is to make their stand known and make this country the nation we want it to be. it doesn't help to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that things will work themselves out. its also foolhardy to run to other democracies such as USA, UK, SA and the like and state that you will never be back until we back here sorted out the mess. those nations are the way they are due to the hard work that all their citizens embarked on and their resolve to make their lives better. they agreed to get their hands dirty. As they say; the grass is greener the other side since thsoe people scythe their sod!

Of kisses and churches

When i came to Nairobi to look for a job (since there was no majimbo), i enlisted to act with phoenix players theater at the professional center. it had always been my dream. the good old Jemo who was the director gave me a complementary ticket to the show that was going on at the time in order for me to appreciate the standard of plays. the show was titled 'Fools' staring Ian Mbugua. it was a hilarious comedy and every line caused roars of laughter. but the underlying message was very strong. the story was about a city on which a curse had been cast. the curse made everyone in the city very foolish. the curse would only be broken when the mayor's only daughter got married and received her first kiss.

Now that was where the plot thickened. the beautiful daughter was engaged alright but she could neither get married nor get that powerful kiss. why? because of the fool curse. the fiance could not get himself to do the noble thing and even the girl had very funny answers to every one of his proposals. so the city lived with their 'fools curse' until one day a foreigner who was supposed to be the girls teacher came to town. he fell 'foolishly in love with the girl and even though he was told about the history of the city and the curse, and even the edit that only the fiancee could marry the beautiful daughter of the king, this teacher defied all that and one day, completely unable to contain himself, pounced on her and kissed her very passionately.

The curse was broken. 'wajinga wakaerevuka!' the fools experienced a sudden surge in intelligence and wisdom. one notable thing that happened was that the mayor's wife set up several businesses. she became so organized that even her husband had to book an appointment to see her and so on


in the present kenya, i cant help but draw a parallel with that story. it reminds me on a guy who went to a party called KANU and 'Kissed' the party. the hitherto loyal followers of the party leader suddenly became fiercely independent and one of them is even running for president this year even though his former leader had declared that no one in the party was fit to be a president. not even his friend. at that time they had clapped and cheered him when he made that statement. while the rest who used to follow their leader so loyally are now charting their own cause. in fact i was shocked to hear them say on TV. 'Hiyo support yake kwa rais ni yake binafsi!

moral of the story : Never kiss strangers!


and as that was happening, one Hon Bill Ruto who is a non catholic reminded me ; a staunch catholic, that the catholic church of which John Njue is cardinal is governed through majimbo!

and he is so right. since Njue is coming to Nairobi to head the Jimbo Kuu la Nairobi. where i was born and brought up, we were under the Jimbo Kuu la Kisumu. there are also Jimbo Kuu la Nyeri, and Mombasa. there are other smaller jimbos like Jimbo la Nakuru, machakos, Eldoret, Kakamega etc. Ruto went on to ask Njue how come those majimbos of the catholic church have never caused tribal wars!

Meanwhile, the clashes in mount Elgon are going on unabated as are the ones in kuresoi and parts of eastern province even without majimbo. no pastoral letter has been sent to Kibaki to condemn these clashes. during Moi's time, the catholic church used to issue pastoral letters criticizing the govt every time they heard any small sob or sniff anywhere in the country.

moral of the story: Sin aint sin if your friend commits it!

debut blunders

When former Arch Bishop (now cardinal designate) Njue was appointed by the pope some time this month, i got a call from a very unlikely source. it was a writer with nation business daily. i had known him before at a friendship level. but this time when he called he told me it was purely business. he wanted to know the reaction of a staunch catholic at the occasion of Kenya getting her second cardinal. Well i said it was a great thing but appointment of cardinals was a prerogative of the pope in rome just as ministers were appointed by the president. but he wanted to know the significance and whether that would excite catholics and rejuvenate the faith in kenya. i said that i was not sure. but i wanted to compare Njue with the late Michael Cardinal Otunga. the church in kenya has been following on the beatification of the late cardinal and faithfuls have been asked to report any incidences of successful intercessions (prayers answered after praying through the late cleric) i hear a number have been reported so far. but why have kenyans even tried to do that? because Otunga was unique and fiercely religiuos. we remember him at uhuru park together with muslims burning condoms, we remember his rigid stand against any form of abortion, stand against rights abuses and so on. but we also remember that Otunga was a rare kenyan breed who not only corrected Moi in the pastoral letters but also on his face. he was not the type to juggle issues and double speak. so how different was the new cardinal? Kenyans still did not know his firm stand on moral issues. we only knew his stand on political issues. in any case he had shown more than once his partisan stance. so i concluded to my caller that Kenyans may not find as much excitement on his appointment as what Otunga used to generate and it remained to be seen if kenyans would hold him in such a high esteem.

on telly the same day, Njue did not disappoint me. he was there on his first public appearance declaring his stance on an emotive and divisive issue as majimbo. one would have thought that he would have given it more thought or addressed it more soberly. after all majimbo was never contentious and was in all the 3 draft constitutions including the wako draft which the catholic fathers told us at that time to support

He however repeated it yesterday flanked this time by other catholic fathers. according to him, kenya needs to grow up first as a united nation before thinking of majimbo. question is, how long is old enough. kenya is 43 years old already and we are worse off than in '63. and again what is a united nation to me and you? what does a united nation mean? as at now if you are in marakwet, or turkana, you cannot believe you are in kenya. similarly if you are from nairobi's western side, and you happen to visit mwingi, you would not believe you are touring the same country. but why? cause of skewed resource allocation.

the bishops said majimbo will bring tribalism. ok i know these bishops lead a very sheltered life and they probably dont know that majimbo will not bring tribalism, coz tribalism has been here for very long and it has become worse. we see it everywhere, in jobs, churches, trade, campaigns resource allocation etc. am told even when kenyans go abroad they still stick to their tribesmens and women only and in the US of A , certain cities are know to have only certain tribes. Even the dishing out of districts is glaringly tribal. in fact the next best thing would be to turn these tribes , into administrative units. the BEE and affirmative action in south africa can loosely be termed as official tribalism.

so i was disappointed at cardinal's first public announcement. instead of hitting at majimbo, i think we were better off talking about tribalism and giving practical examples of how to tame the vice now instead of scare mongering. But churches have always avoided talking against tribalism. the only pastor i swa boldly attacking the vice was the same old pastero of the House of grace church.

However during the debate in newsline yesterday, the two former commissioners gave majimbo debate a very sober approach and they suggested that kenyans address the fears that the majimbo debate generates so that we can adopt it since according to them, majimbo was currently the best and only way to ensure equitable distribution of our national resources

goodies!

Ati rarieda district! Kibaki sure is a comedian. ok before you am hit with thousands of anti-me punches. who thought rarieda was going to be made a district? it now joins the likes of suba as a one constituency district. so kibaki was lying when he said that we he was moving away from the nyayo ways of dishing out ministries and districts. however nyayo tried it and survived for two terms. desperate times call for desperate actions. at this rate the whole country will be dissected into millions of miniature districts all in the name of going back to kilimani estate. and by the way, where on earth is 'mimi kama rais' lucy? she should be telling us now why she must continue as well as michuki, murungaru etc.

Price Shocker!

this past day i got a shock of great proportions. i have been reading in blogs and even hearing on TV about the price increases but i hadn't seen it first hand until i went for my monthly shopping. well first good news first, nakumatt junction was hosting house of grace church in the central 'hall' (for lack of a better word) House of grace church is not your everyday church with tradition ,laws, rules, kanzu and tarban. it is an 'uptizo' church the kind that 'ozones' of the '90s would attend. replete with young suave gentlemen, beautiful girls, great music and very contemporary teachings. the pastor often addresses the issues of the day. the ones that pple would rather avoid eg tribalism, capitalsm, etiquette and such like things.

but even the good church music outside did not prepare me for the price shock inside. most things have gone up. sugar! 150/=. cooking fat by 20% , bread from 25 to 33 thats what? more than 30% meat by another 30% . washing soap, fuel, unga wa ngano, name it. in fact those women who sell chapatis in inda and some construction sites will just close shop. since their inputs have gone up by more than 50% in one month. meaning they must also increase their prices by the same margin. will they get customers given that income hasn't gone up by the same margin over the past one month?

so much for the free primary education, but will the kids go to that school hungry, unclothed , dirty and unhoused? these were the questions one presidential candidate Pastor Pius Muiru was asking on TV as i browsed the supermarket. citizen did me proud again by giving Muiru the coverage even though all the other stations snubbed the preacher. and he did have a large crowd. only that unlike 'wiper', he did not ask the cameramen to take this shot here and that shot there in order to disapprove steadman. However i must say that muiru shocked me with his grasp of the plight of the common mwananchi and his seemingly very practical solutions. why, he posed was it necessary to provide concessions to people who had the ability to build 150 houses? that was like rain falling on the ocean!

as i moved on, i got forcefully involved in a conversation with another man who was equally shell shocked at the price tags. but he had someone to blame. he suggested that the prices have been increased "...kuangusha hii serikali. hawa ni watu ambao hawataki kazi mzuri iendelee!"

anyway, i would understand that the 120% tax on plastic would have caused increase in prices of stuff like bread or sugar due to packaging but i dont know how that makes the price of a kilo of meat to go up.

but all in all, i really wonder how kenyans across the board are making it. these price hikes are simply extreme.

Siasa na NSE

the good station was at it again. this time, KTN chose two sober minded debaters. or may it was the debaters who chose to be sober minded focused and issue driven. as opposed to the discussion on majimbo which was replete with innuendos and confusion, the debate on NSE and politics was carried very maturely by Billow Kerrow and Jimnah Mbaruh. Mbaruh agreed with Kerrow and even Raila on several aspects of the market. he even agreed that the control of the NSE was concentrated in the hands of a few. he agreed about market cycles and so on. Kerrow gave a very detailed analysis of the factors that can and have influenced markets the world over and NSE included. it was quite refreshing. Jimnah assured us that the market will improve next year come rain or high water. it was there before independence and survived the two dictatorial leaderships. in fact he indicated that confidence levels were going higher up. On the declining index, he said the impending safaricom IPO was a more likely culprit than anything else. investors have just been positioning themselves for the biggest and most emotive IPO in our history. emotive because safaricom is close to many peoples heart. another reason why it should be delayed and held only after elections as suggested by the CEO Michael Joseph.

and in another city, ODM-K was finalizing their game plan. the second miracle. probably to team up with Kibaki and revenge on the pentagon who denied him presidency. does that surprise anyone? Hardly. During the debate on majimbo, Mutula showed that as much.

So Mr. Raila has 4 vendetas ganging against him. one Simeon Nyachae who has never forgiven him for hoodwinking him (Nyachae) to attend the rally where Kibaki was declared tosha, Moi; for all the problems in his (Moi's) life, Uhuru for deserting him at his hour of need and finally Kalonzo, the chosen one who believed that the presidency was his birthright only for the pentagons to declare interest and make it clear to him that he would lose ODM nomination. but this cloud has a very bright silver lining for the Raila team. with kalonzo out of the race, the threat of voters getting confused about the two oranges will melt like ice and further more kalonzo's joining of PNU will only increase the confusion and jostling already existing in that side.

Don't you just like how Ruto gives practical examples in his campaigns. in fact instead of sending Nyongo for the majimbo debate. Ruto should have been sent. Nyongo was very theoretical and academic. but Ruto simply says: hakuna haja kuenda kutafuta kazi Nairobi pekee yake. hakuna haja kuenda referral hospital Nairobi pekee, etc. by the way did you know that most national schools are only found in nairobi province and its close environs?