Kenya Imagine

• In the Court of Public Opinion: Ruto & Mugabe, Guilty

  Posted: April 7, 2008, 5:32 pm

  Robert Mugabe, not guilty. William Ruto, not guilty.
  
  One of the basic tenets that just and democratic governments are founded on is the rule of law.
  
  Justice we hold to be, amongst other things, the right of the individual to a fair trial. The presumption must always remain that prior to and all through the trial, the individual is innocent until, due process followed to its logical conclusion, proven guilty. When the trial is done, the verdict returned, justice, we hold, must be done and seen to have been done.
  
  Read more from Njoroge Matathia here.

• Portfolio balance; 21 questions

  Posted: April 7, 2008, 5:29 pm

  Many Kenyans did not watch the football this weekend, they were at home waiting on the announcement of the Cabinet results, looking for relief after three months of almost fictional horror. But it was real enough, and as elements of the political class keep reminding us, a sequel is on the cards should their angry spirits not be mollified. The major reason for their grief, are captured in words that have now come into the shrine of our political lexicon for all time, Portfolio Balance. The trouble is, what seems important to some, seems less important to others.
  Which ministries do you think are crucial to the running of the state and under whose control do they fall? Is the very idea of a Grand Coalition under such circumstances not anathema to national progress, after all the vigorous arguments betray a desire in the politicians not to serve all Kenyans but to serve specific narrow passions of their own.
  
  Discuss here.

• Identity and Violence (with apologies to Amartya Sen)

  Posted: April 7, 2008, 8:13 am

  In Kenya, violence abounds, as do analyses of its causes and consequences. An efficient way of dividing opinion on the matter is to ask four questions: Was the violence planned? Was it 'ethnic'? Was there ethnic cleansing? Was it 'political'?
  
  We aren't short of people who will answer no to all save the last for boring political reasons; we needn't worry about them. But others, for presumably non-political reasons, will do likewise. 'Unless names are invidiously named', as Timothy Williamson once said, 'sermons like this... tend to cause less offence than they should, because everyone imagines that they are aimed at other people'. Maina Kiai, Tavia Nyong'o, here's looking at you.
  
  Read more from Daniel Waweru here.

• Casting the first stone

  Posted: April 7, 2008, 8:10 am

  Kenya has been at a political crossroads for far too long, and yet a new front has been set up by MPs from central Kenya allied to the PNU. They are suggesting that their Eldoret North colleague, Mr William Ruto, an ODM Pentagon member, be not part of the coalition government.
  
  Knowing well that Mr Ruto has to be in the new Cabinet, the MPs want to throw a spanner into the works by imposing conditions on ODM that they know only too well will not be met. The main allegation against Mr Ruto are that he facilitated and/or planned post-election violence in Rift Valley Province. But can this accusation bar him from being a minister?
  
  Read more from Donald Kipkorir here.

• Home Alone

  Posted: April 7, 2008, 8:08 am

  It's saturday evening, quater past eight and i'm about to start dying slow deaths. Yes, you read right.. slow deaths.
  
  You see it's the German version of pop idol... they call it Deutchland sucht den Superstar which roughly translates to „Germany is searching for the superstar“... well I did say roughly translated. Forgive my grammar tonight for I have had an indecent amount of red wine already... and all that on an empty stomach... ahem... empty except for a packet of potato crisps and a tin of cashew nuts.
  
  Read more from Joyce Köster here.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes