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Kenya Imagine

Kenya, Kenyatta, the Flag is Flying

Posted: March 31, 2008, 10:12 pm

"Hamjambo wananchi wote pamoja na wageni wetu. Mimi ni Kisoi Munyao ninaozungumza nanyi kutoka kileleni cha Mlima Kenya. Kenya, Kenyatta, bendera imepepea. Kenya popote mwangaza umeenea." (Hello to all citizens and our visitors. I am Kisoi Munyao, speaking to you from the peak of Mt Kenya. Kenyatta, the flag is flying. All over Kenya, the light is shining).

On that day, in December 1963, Kisoi Munyao stood at the highest point of the new nation. He hoisted a brand new flag, at the dawn of independence; the birth of a nation called Kenya. A flag with red, for the blood that was shed that Kenya could be forever free; green for the land, that would forever be bountiful; black for the people, an African race that had finally won self-determination and dominion over their motherland; white for the peace that, after the war of liberation's proud yet painful legacy, would prevail within Kenya's borders. A flag that would forever symbolise national unity in this independent and sovereign state.

Read more from Njoroge Matathia here.
Why Mugabe continues to rule Zimbabwe

Posted: March 31, 2008, 10:10 pm

Zimbabweans as a people need a change of governance for the sake of their very lives. The world is settled on that fact but has failed to agree on the informing motive. It is clear now, that besides an economic turn-around for the country, other, less altrustic motives have emerged.
Why is it that everyone feels in themselves activists for humanity while pouring criticism on President Robert Mugabe, but falls just short of committing to any action?

Read more from Thuo Kiragu here.
How many blind mice?

Posted: March 31, 2008, 10:08 pm

It is clear now, that a full month after the much heralded coalition agreement was signed, the signatories are not close to presenting the Kenyan people with a cabinet of ministers. Competing interests include a need by the principals to reward and keep close their main lieutenants, and to balance the cabinet so that those appointed are reflective of the regional and ethnic make-up of the country. The parties are also seen to be haggling about who should take what ministerial portfolio, with the ODM seen to be particularly keen on the Ministry of Finance, and the PNU particularly averse to relinquishing that office.

Discuss here.
Transporting Nairobi; can Uhuru drive this car?

Posted: March 31, 2008, 10:04 pm

It is far from the most graceful move, but Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta's decision to restrict access into the city centre for matatus is a bold decision (whatever its motivations) and one that bears much potential. The minister cannot, of course, be absolved for his failure to give adequate notice to the matatu owners, or to explain the exemption from his decree of the major bus companies. He cannot either be forgiven the negligent manner in which so far-reaching and disruptive an innovation was implemented, nor for lacking the foresight to adequately manage the consequences of these measures. Still, the policy may yet be redeemed and the city that was once green and in the sun, may live to celebrate a decision that should serve to reduce its overwhelming ambient air pollution and clear its streets of noisy and costly traffic jams.

Read more from Angela Wairimu here.
My Zimbabwe Diary II

Posted: March 31, 2008, 10:01 pm

An electoral candidate's bulletin of events and happenings pertaining to Ward 7, Harare, where he is running for office as a councillor. contd.... .
Failed Leadership

Posted: March 30, 2008, 5:20 pm

Something is clearly wrong with our leaders. First, they plunge contemporary Kenya into the worst crisis it has faced with their never ending battle for power. Now they are convincing us that they should have 44 out of the current 220 ministers. That makes 20% of the government’s National Assembly. Just how much do we need ministers? We have operated with only 17 in the last 3 months noone even noticed! The only people required to run ministries are the Permanent Secretaries. Ministries should, in fact, be consolidated not split.

More from Wanjiru Kamau here.
My Zimbabwe Diary

Posted: March 30, 2008, 5:17 pm

An electoral candidate's bulletin of events and happenings pertaining to Ward 7, Harare where he is running for office as a councillor. Michael Laban, a former councillor, is contesting for the Ward 7 (Avondale, Alex Park, Strathaven, KG6 Barracks, etc.) seat in the Harare City Council. Read more here.
Zimbabwe's enigmatic millions

Posted: March 27, 2008, 8:15 pm

As Ralph drove me to his rose farm in Enterprise Valley, some thirty kilometres outside Harare, he explained how anyone with access to foreign currency and local credit can become a Rockefeller in the new Zimbabwe.

"I bought my farm in 2000 for the equivalent of $150,000 US dollars," he said. "Paid for it in Zimbabwean currency, of course. Borrowed the whole lot from a local bank." The bank charged thirty percent interest on the loan, which would be a lot if inflation weren't outpacing it by several thousand percent. A year and a half later, Ralph's debt had shrunk to the equivalent of USD$18,000 and he paid it off with the proceeds from a single truckload of flowers.

Read more from Arno Kopecky here.
Hope

Posted: March 27, 2008, 5:03 pm

Minda Magero survives the crisis and looks only upward, resilient and recalcitrant in the wake of all life throws at her; she refuses to go under. Read more here.
Literature, Blood and Doves

Posted: March 27, 2008, 4:32 pm

As the media went into a frenzy celebrating the ‘5th Anniversary of the Iraq War', my friend Jackie via chat asked why they were saying this like it was a happy event, like a wedding anniversary or something.

Read more from Simiyu Barasa here.
Youth and Nation

Posted: March 27, 2008, 8:43 am

Knowledge is power or so the cliché goes. Tyrannical governments the world over - from apartheid South Africa to the Moi regime in Kenya - introduced emasculating systems of education. In South Africa, Bantu Education taught the black population to be efficient slaves to their white masters. In Kenya, the 8.4.4 system of education taught us to be God knows what.

Read more from by Njoroge Matathia here.
Not willing to give up on tribe

Posted: March 27, 2008, 8:39 am

I am not yet willing to give up on the concept of tribe. I am unwilling to grant that colonizers were right in their claims that tribe was a limited concept that had no place in the modern world. I am unwilling to accept their definitions that my history and heritage are small and uninteresting, lacking in depth and complexity, beauty and joy.

Read more from Keguro Macharia here.
Who's your family?

Posted: March 26, 2008, 1:00 am

A comment on these pages recently stated, quite boldly, that the respondent's tribe was his family. Well, there is now a report from the United States on a survey that established among other things that Barack Obama is related to several past US presidents. Previous surveys had already shown a link between the Illinois Senator and US Vice President Dick Cheney. The latest one shows that Cheney's boss, US president George Bush, is one of half a dozen US presidents who share family links (even distant ones) with the Democratic Party candidate for the US presidency.

Discuss here.
Raila to outlaw ‘p.m’ in Kenyan time, Kibaki approves

Posted: March 26, 2008, 3:35 pm

Raila Odinga, the man designated to become Kenya’s prime minister, vowed yesterday that his first order of business when he takes office would be to outlaw the use of “p.m,” the abbreviation that indicates the beginning of afternoon in a 12-hour time clock.

Read more from Ombuya E. Okong'o here.
The Portrait

Posted: March 25, 2008, 6:59 pm

Bryan was my brother, ten years older than me and a paint artist. He left home when I was 8 and for a while the distance and age gap pulled us apart. After a particularly bad period of my life, Bryan made special effort to be a big brother. I needed that and still count it as one of the reasons I am still alive today.

Read more from Juliet Maruru here.
What the furore was all about; the Wright stuff

Posted: March 24, 2008, 2:26 am

Published here is the full sermon from the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, it is the speech that had the United States in a collective conniption last week and compelled Senator Obama to that apologetic speech. Perhaps we can make it our thought for Easter?
China and the African Wage Paradox

Posted: March 24, 2008, 2:23 am

Recently, I sat down with a Washington Post reporter and several CGD colleagues to discuss under-reported topics in globalization and development.

Inevitably we came around to the topic of Chinese development and manufacturing, and whether special conditions there (low wages, an undervalued exchange rate, and so forth) are contributing to de-industrialization elsewhere in the world. The impact of China on global manufacturing is certainly no under-reported topic, but the discussion usually focuses on the consequences for the US.

Read more from Chris Blattman here.
Closure

Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:54 pm

It's funny how sometimes you think that you know the cause of a problem only to later realise that you really have had no clue all along and that you've been fighting the wrong demons. For the first time in a long while, I was overwhelmed by a deep feeling of despair, anger and as much as I hated to admit it to myself, an acute sense of desperation. After spending hours crying and beating myself up over the sorry state that is now my life, I finally figured out what the problem was. It was me.

Read more from Monica Wangeci here.
A More Perfect Union

Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:52 pm

American presidential candidate Senator Barrack Obama takes on the challenge of the Pastor Jeremiah Wright association to addresse race in America and its impact on his candidacy. Published here is his speech.
So tonight when I sleep, I will sleep with one eye open

Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:49 pm

I refuse to accept that it is over. The hatred and the fighting is not over. No one can convince me that the less than 12 hour turn around on the choice between no negotiations and a coalition government came through the goodwill of our precious politicians at the helm. We should not be fooled into becoming clapping buffoons when the people responsible for bloodshed continue to leech us dry. We should not pat them on the back and say thank you for the resolution.

Read more from Bee Dablewkay here.
The Road To Eldoret

Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:46 pm

The scene from his hotel room screen in Nakuru still fills his mind. Let's call him M. He's from Muranga, he still drives the Datsun 120 Y that he bought in 1972 when he was a twenty two year old boy.

He's got a family in the outskirts of Eldoret where his wife runs the family farm (cows and wheat) that he bought in 1982 from a white man fleeing the coup that "never happened," as he is fond of saying. "So I got the farm cheap."

Read more from Tony Mochama here.
Cat Lady

Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:44 pm

Roman showed up at my mum's front door three days ago. I had last seen him five before that day.

Five years ago I was 21 years old, ambitious, adventurous, working as a store manager for an Italian Cookware Company in the central business district of Mombasa Island, volunteering at a children’s home every weekend, playing soccer and diving in the ocean every Sunday afternoon, and was the naughty young lady engaged to be married to the minister’s son. Roman was older, strangely settled at 29 and eager for me to stop being bad and wild so I could be his wife.

Read more from Juliet Maruru here.
Sovereign Wealth Funds: power vs principle

Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:41 pm

The world's financial press has a new obsession to succeed the "sub-prime mortgage" craze of autumn 2007: "sovereign wealth funds", those state-backed investment bodies whose accumulating assets (often fuelled by the high energy prices of the 2000s) are roaming the globe in search of businesses to invest in, partner - and perhaps devour. The enormous capital assets of these funds, and their potential influence on western markets and business, make the focus (and to a degree the fear) understandable; but some at least of the reporting and discussion about these new behemoths in the western media has a bias towards misunderstanding.

Read more from Fred Halliday here.
Africa and the Future

Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:38 pm

Published here is a speech given by the Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon on February 22 to the Africa Investment and Finance Conference held at the London Stock Exchange.
Your turn now, Zimbabwe

Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:20 pm

With even Kenyans starting to lose interest in the Kenyan saga, Zimbabwe looks set to become the next African media darling. This time around, though, coverage will be more spotty; president Robert Mugabe has banned reporters from ‘hostile' Western countries-meaning all Western countries-from entering the country in advance of the March 29th election.

Read more from Arno Kopecky here.
My Gikuyu Journal

Posted: March 19, 2008, 6:17 pm

"No other (ethnic)nation in Kenya is washing its dirty linen in public, why are all of you emerging young Kikuyu writers doing it?" the email correspondence began. I offered to respond in a well argued essay in public. My correspondent would have none of it. "...I hope you see why that would be similar to the whole 2005-2007 ‘outing of Kikuyu culture and issues'.

Read more from Njoroge Matathia here.
Ballots to Bullets

Posted: March 17, 2008, 4:57 pm

Published here is the latest Human Rights Watch's report into the conduct of the election, and subsequent violence, titled Ballots to Bullets; Organized Political Violence and Kenya's Crisis of Governance. Read and Discuss.
On my Faith and my Church

Posted: March 16, 2008, 10:45 pm

American political commentary is abuzz with the fallout from revelations that Barack Obama's pastor and 'spiritual mentor' holds some particularly strong views on race and politics. Published here is Senator Obama's response to the furore.

Discuss.
Melancholic Clichés

Posted: March 16, 2008, 10:43 pm

I sometimes use the white hair ruthlessly springing up all over my head, as an excuse to be irrelevant. The younger men, who work with and for me, usually pause hesitantly, uncertain whether to call me up on it or respect my age. I usually watch with amusement, adding more irrelevant clichés waiting for the one person who always ends up being my daughter to tell me to stop it.

Read more from Warorua Gichanga here.
Speaking for the voiceless, speaking for Kenya

Posted: March 13, 2008, 7:01 pm

Kenyans have gone through a most traumatizing period over the ten weeks following the excessively flawed December 2007 elections.

There is hope among many Kenyans that the recent signing of a political deal between the Raila Odinga led Orange Democratic Movement and President Kibaki's PNU marks the first step towards the realization of the, more democratic, dispensation that has eluded Kenyans for a long time.

Read more from Kisemei Mutisya here.
m-pesa

Posted: March 13, 2008, 6:58 pm

I watched as a queue snaked outside the Kenya Revenue Authority and banks. What a waste of precious labor time, I thought to myself.

I was at the bank queueing up to withdraw money through the bank teller since the ATM was not working. There were about 30 0ther Kenyans, wasting valueable time, in the same predicament. A few hours later, I decided to use my M-PESA account and it only took less than 2 minutes.

Read more from Wanjiru Kamau here.
Legend of Creek Town

Posted: March 13, 2008, 6:55 pm

My all time favorite story when I was ten was Washington Irving's (Diedrich Knickerbocker) Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

I had found the unabridged version of the short story in my friend Khalid Kassim's library and promptly begged (with such earnestness) for a chance to read it that the kindly man, with his graying hair at the temples and eyes the color of burning emerald told me I could keep the book, too.

Read more Juliet Maruru here.
The Mwananchi: Kenya's Official Opposition

Posted: March 13, 2008, 6:50 pm

To begin with, let us underscore that in the recent post polls crisis, it is the ordinary Kenyans who bore the huge brunt since no political elite fought anywhere.

It was the ordinary Kenyans, in the rural areas and in the slums, who took the bullet to protect the ballot; and who are still freezing cold and starving in the numerous IDP camps. Further, it is our children who are still traumatised; it is our farms, kiosks, churches, shelters, belongings and dreams that went up in flames.

Read more from George Nyangweso and Bunge la Wananchi here.
The Other Woman

Posted: March 12, 2008, 6:25 pm

It’s been a good day, well spent.. a huge dent in the wallet but what the heck.. it was a day well spent. You decide to take a walk back home, a smile on your face, a certain irritating song that won’t leave your mind but you whistle along nonetheless and have a slight spring in your step. Then it happens. Your heart misses a beat. Not the way it does when you see him but in a way that leaves you feeling nauseous, like you just got punched in the stomach. For a split second you wonder if this is how a heart attack begins. With a missing heartbeat, then two and after a while no heartbeat at all.

Read more from Joyce Köster here.
Be nice to articulate fundamentalists

Posted: March 11, 2008, 11:25 pm

Yes, you should be nice to religious fundmaentalists who defend their beliefs reasonably. Here's why.

Read more from Daniel Waweru here.
Of hierarchies, powers and privileges

Posted: March 11, 2008, 11:24 pm

It was perhaps to be expected that a document as vague as the national accord signed by President Kibaki and ODM head Raila Odinga should soon run into a stream of different interpretations. Kamale T had already written a perspicacious article here, highlighting exactly how vague both the National Accord and the Act of Parliament that would entrench it in law were regarding not just the intended hierarchy but also the powers, duties and responsibilities of the offices newly created. It also shows,and the president's speech when opening parliament underlines, that while the signatories to the accord were President Kibaki and Hon. Odinga, the wording of the pact is such as would admit the ODM-K, KANU, Safina and other parties into the pre-accord PNU coalition.

Read more from Stephen Wanyama here.
Delivering on the President's speech

Posted: March 11, 2008, 11:22 pm

The president set out in his speech opening parliament, what is truly a most ambitious legislation agenda. However, given the present unity in the house, it is ambition that has every chance of success. Of the agenda announced, these stand out not just for their courage, but also for the potential benefits that the Kenyan people can enjoy from their implementation.

Read Peter Ndiangui's analysis here.
The Day I Died

Posted: March 10, 2008, 9:04 pm

The light struck my eyes, but without painI was floating among clouds;
deep blue skies and fresh ocean windsI was clad in white silken robes

A poem from Lameck Arika here.
You blame my people; I blame you and not yours

Posted: March 10, 2008, 9:01 pm

After a bloody post-election crisis, Kenya has found a political solution. Once again, we have found ourselves resolving or countering a political impasse by throwing high paying jobs at a select few. To stop politicians from interfering with our day to day lives, and using Kenya's hordes of unemployed, embittered and disillusioned youth as canon fodder in their power struggles, we have offered them plum jobs. We have a negotiated solution that will see the cost of government go up in a country which, already, "devotes a disproportionate shares of its taxes on administration and wages at the expense of provision of services."

Read more from Charles Matathia here.
From Crisis to Opportunity: Sustaining Kenya on Its Democratic

Posted: March 9, 2008, 1:09 am

Published here is the speech given by the American Ambassador Michael Ranneberger at the Law Society of Kenya dinner yesterday.
Bitter Herbs

Posted: March 6, 2008, 8:11 am

According to the local and international media, Kenyans have heaved a sigh of relief. Crisis averted. Our leaders have been pictured smiling, their concerns ameliorated. They will not lose power. At least not yet. It is as though we have discovered a taste for what plagued us.

Read more from Keguro Macharia here.
Analyse this: The National Accord and Reconciliation Bill, 2008

Posted: March 6, 2008, 8:09 am

I have been able to see the Bill in the form that was released after the 28th February. This bill in its present format will be a constitutional headache to get through Parliament. More than that, there are fundamental issues in it that raise the possibility of it being rendered illegal by the High Court due to its inconsistency with the current constitution.

Read Kamale T's analysis here.
Kenya's crisis talks continue - four documents

Posted: March 6, 2008, 8:06 am

Published here are four documents from the continuing mediation effort aimed at getting longer term solutions to the Kenyan crisis. Constitutional Review.
The romance of scars and scabs

Posted: March 4, 2008, 11:34 am

I'm not a fan of anything classified even remotely as romantic: not in the traditional sense and most certainly not in any interpretation given reference to under modern thought and meaning. I don't read the books or listen to the music and it's more than once that I've dozed through a movie which presented an usually persistent exchange of oral fluid. ver mind my particular aversion to chocolate and the fact that flowers can have me in bed for a week as the result of an allergic reaction. Cheesy violin music and intense looks that last up to twenty minutes at a time could only be irritating to someone such as myself who's entire CD collection is introduced by song titles like "If you don't love me, lie to me." and "Heartbreak Hotel".

Read more from L. Akitelek Papakemus here.
Why Obama must win the nomination

Posted: March 4, 2008, 11:25 am

I am not one for hype. I do not even have a Facebook account, so you know how quickly I wrote off Barrack Obama's chances of winning the American Presidency. It did not help either that he was chummy with Kenya 's opposition leader Raila Odinga. I was not the only one who'd written him off it seems. Many Kenyans, even we tribal people, who will vote anyone we share the slightest 'blood' bond with, had already given up on him. We were immensely proud, a brave effort, he would make a good showing, but it would be best if he gave up and accepted that America was not ready for a black President. Maybe try for number two while he learned the ropes, made a few friends and got some experience. Over in the United States, the black people came out in large numbers, speaking against him, he was not black enough, his blackness was foreign, Kenyan, not African-American and he knew nothing of the stigma of slavery or of segregation.

Read more from Stephen Wanyama here.
Helldoret

Posted: March 4, 2008, 11:23 am

A Kenyan city, famed for its runners, its mushrooms and its cookies, the breadbasket, the bullet factory, blankets and an airport came to global attention and will live forever; for something entirely different.

Read more from Wilson Wahome here.
Kenya: histories of hidden war

Posted: March 2, 2008, 1:22 pm

The systemic realities of political violence in Kenya need to be dissected if the post-election crisis is to be understood, says Gérard Prunier.
Read more here.
Rethinking Feminism

Posted: March 1, 2008, 1:19 am

A couple of years ago a friend of mine had a debate about the right to dress a certain way. Being relatively conservative, I was of the position that women (and men) had a responsibility to dress in such a way that they would not "provoke" negative reactions from the wider society.

Read more from Nanjala Nyabola here.