Mpeketoni massarcre - the conspirancy theory

Kenya woke up to very horrendous news of a 4hr long massacre that happened in Mpeketoni, a bustling remote town in the southeast of Kenya. It was a big political setback to the Jubilee government who are busy setting Kenya's development agenda 2013-2018.

As expected, the NIS, the police and the entire

National dialogue - lets call it something else

It is very dissapointing that Kalonzo Musyoka cited Somali and South Sudan national dialogues as examples when answering a journalist question at orange house when CORD luminaries called a press conference to clarify what they actually meant when they placed an embargo on the ruling caolition to host a national dialogue conference.

It is common knowledge that Somalia and South Sudan are states dogged with war because of individuals personal egos and it is not wrong to conclude - based on Kalonzo assertions - that the national dialogue after all is not about the mwananchi but rather about individuals who were competing for a certain position and need closure over the issue of 2013 elections.

The issues raised by CORD have been in existence in Kenya for a very long time. Indeed there is no time in the history of Kenya that Kenyans were so divided tribally than in the build-up to 2007 elections. CORD cannot therefore accuse the UhuRuto government of being tribal yet they themselves exhibited tribal-tendencies (as far as govt.  appointments are concerned) when sharing their mkate nusu in the grand coalition.

The question is - If at all Jubilee agrees to talks, will CORD be the proverbial camel that asked the owner of the tent to shelter its head and eventually threw the owner out?

If at all some solutions to Kenya's problems were found during the national debate, will CORD demand to implement them?

UhuRuto government should not agree to national dialogue. Agreeing to it will be akin to admitting, that they are not up to task, or more bluntly not able to rule Kenya.

Anti-climax in Raila's homecoming party

They say...."great expectations make frustrated men" and thats exactly what happened in the much hyped and much anticipated Raila's homecoming party. As with all huge rally's the event was marred by heckling, chaos and public disorder evident by the fact that most of the speakers spent more time quelling the crowds rather than addressing the masses.

As predicted in this blog, there were subtle hints that Raila Odinga the man is now but a pale shadow of his former self. For an unknown reason Raila seemed to be an angry man. He addressed the nation with bitterness and his overall tone was that of ultimatums to the ruling regime, falling short to calling for mass action. Indeed, he suggested mass action or political instability if the government does not convene a national dialogue conference and invite the opposition.

It seems that certain people flourish in creating political crisis in the republic and this is never good for the economy of the nation atleast at the macroeconomic level. The argument or rather the justification for all this tension has always been that the opposition represents half the population of Kenya and therefore Jubilee cannot rule alone.

What a fallacy this is. Absolute hog wash. As it stands, CORD has no legal mandate to govern Kenya. More bluntly, they lost the election. It is only fair if they let the ruling coalition exercise their mandate in their constitutional term. All this bickering only derails the nations economic agenda and therefore affecting the common mwananchi on the ground not only economically but also socially in the sense that this politics always have a way of awakening the tribalism monster, which some of us wish could be slaughtered and buried in the deepest hole on earth.

Endless politics will not put food on the mwananchi table but will raise tensions between friends since in Kenya, tribe = politics. Yes your tribe can give a hint of your political affiliation even if you are not concerned. Ethnic profiling is rife and CORD thrives on it.

Raila homecoming was short of expectation.

IG Kimaiyo bans political rallies and effectively mangles Raila homecoming party

Kenya my country is a funny country. It is a country where its people pride themselves for democracy but still continue practicing primitive politics. Case in point is when a bunch of politicians in their late 50's, 60's and 70's suddenly become champions of the people and engage in very irresponsible behaviour.

As it is, Kenyan government is in a tight spot in all spheres. It is a young government, barely 18months in office, which is trapped between electral promises and the day to day operations of government.

Western nations especially United Kingdom and the United States have put travel advisories and for the case of Great Britain, gone further and airlifted  their citizens who were on holiday therefore crippling the tourism industry. Most Kenyans unfortunately did not read between the lines in this whole "travel advisory" saga.

The travel advisories are the new sanctions and what the western nations did was equivalent to economic sabotage on Kenya. Reason being that President Uhuru in his character dismissed the imperialist slave masters as blood suckers while hosting the Chinese prime minister. The China premier visit caused a lot of diplomatic discomfort in the Western consulates in Nairobi - The case of a jilted lover.

It is a shame that most africans still believe Africa cannot do without a whiteman.

Raila Odinga in a past event

Other than the economic sabotage, the jubilee government is also facing an outcry over the payments to Anglo leasing merchants. There also reports of a "rift" in the rift valley due to perceived short-changing of the rift valley constituency in the ruling coalition.

CORD has capitalized on this situation and what better time to express themselves and convince Kenyans that they are the better option than when "baba" comes back home from an academic sabbatical in the United States of America. Fortunately or unfortunately CORD's bigotry has gotten ahead of them and the inspector general of police David Kimaiyo has banned all political rallies indefinitely and effectively thrown into dissarray Raila's homecoming party plans.

The biggest problem in Kenya is not the ban of political rallies but that of politians both in ruling party and those in the opposition always engaging in primitive politics. Ever since the retirement of Daniel arap Moi, Kenya has always been in a consistent political tag of war. If it is not the MCA's agitating for the impeachment of Governors, it is a group of MP's calling for the impeachment of a Cabinet Secretary for transferring their kinsmen from one position to another.

Leadership (Senators and MP's and MCA's) priority is not uplifting the life of Kenyans but endless wrangles and unnecessary politicking. It is as if politicians are always under pressure to appear on TV or in the dailies talking about useless things that dont help the mwananchi in any way.

The media on the other hand is so unprofessional that one can easily tell that a presenter is biased towards a certain political leaning. A good example is a journalist on KTN who hosts the breakfast show. The guy was so gloomy in the morning after IG Kimaiyo's order. Indeed, even in interiews where politicians are invited, these bunch of dump journalists will always get carried away by the politicians bigotry and hate speech that they grin like children when the politician spews tribal comments or baseless and untruthful facts.

I hope that Raila's homecoming will not be marred up by riots or worst still casualties from police vs. masses battles. Yes, Kenya is facing challenges but elected leaders should be working towards solving problems and not inciting the people to hate each other on tribal or political basis. tolerance is critical. Mp's and senators should be busy formulating legislation and championing their constituencies development agenda.

Why Raila's homecoming would be the last nail to his political coffin

There is no doubt that Raila Odinga has had an illustrious political career. For the past three decades, Raila has been a thorn in the flesh to the ruling elite in Kenya.But a closer look at his politics reveals a man who has perfected the act of political rhetoric sometimes boudering on incitement and reckless declarions.

However, who can blame the man. Raila is an animated character with knack for captivating huge crowds especially those of the labour class. The labour class are the majority in Kenya and are usually the first in society to bare the brunt of inflation and high interest rates. In Raila, people see the messiah. The one who will take them to the promised land.

Personally, in my private thoughts, i imagine what a Raila Presidency can be like. Sometimes i think Kenyans will be judged harshly by a superior force for never giving Raila a chance. Its like when you are fresh graduate and not apply for certain vacancy and the feeling that maybe that one opportunity you ignored might have  been the one to end you joblessness.

So, Raila has been on a sabatical in Boston USA. He has been busy lecturing in Universities in the USA on matters of leadership in Africa.Meanwhile his psycophants back at home led by senators Orengo, Muthama and Wetangula are busy spoiling Raila homecoming party by leaking information on the plans of that "big" day.

This is my prediction on how the homecoming will effectively end Raila's career. The rhetoric that the Jubilee government has failed and Kenyans made a blunder to vote for UhuRuto will backfire. Indeed, if CORD's activity will slow down Kenya's economy then that will be it. It will prove true what Raila phobia antagonists have always preached. That Raila will go for power no matter what. Bloodshed included. And this time even Raila's supporters might wake up to this reality.

Anyway, i hope Raila's homecoming will brighten Kenya's news. We are tired of MCA's and thei impeachment song. We are also tired of grenades and IED's.

Illicit brews in Kenya proves fatal than a cholera outbreak

If there is one disease that all of you avid readers of this blog should watch out for when in Africa or any other region with tropical climate, then it should be Cholera.Forget HIV/AIDS, Malaria or Gornorrhea/Syphillis for those of you who cannot resist on landing. Cholera is the real deal.

Cholera is caused by a dormant bacteria - bacterium Vibrio cholerae. (thank God for Wikipedia). A cholera outbreak can kill more than 100 people within hours, before the usually demotivated health personnel( i speak of Kenyan ones) realize what is happening.Its not cholera that i will be talking about today, but its competitor in the killing business - illicit brews.

Kenyans are still coming to terms with the death of atleast 80 people and a similar number critically ill in hospital. This departed men, women, boys and girls were victims of a poisonous alcoholic drink that they consumed on Sunday 4th May 2014. The deaths were reported in atleast 6 Kenyan counties, where the drink aptly named "countryman" with an illustration of a cowboy on top of horse was supplied.

As expected Kenyan media houses mishandled the whole issue and as per tradition sensationalized and even tribalized the matter given that these 6 counties are in close proximity to the blessed mountain of God from which the noun KENYA was coined. Comparisons of how residents from Western Kenya drink busaa, how Coastals love their palmwine and tribal undertones of how a certain community is afflicted by illicit brews were awash in mainstream media as well as gutter press.

Facebook and twiiter pundits were not left behind, and one facebooker commenting on a photo of president Uhuru inspecting a guard of honour while on official visit to the Federal state of Nigeria, asked why the president looked jovial mood while his "voters" were dying of chang'aa (Kenyan speak for Nubian gin).

President Uhuru Kenyatta inspecting a guard of honour mounted by Nigerian defence force

The victims interviewed, stuck to the old tired line of, we-are-poor-and-we-need -alcohol-to-forget-that-we-are-poor. NACADA, an institution with the mandate to ensure Kenyans are not junkies and led by the able former alcoholic John Mututho, kept to the Kenyan tradition and quickly convened a crisis meeting. In this meeting,  they came up with statistics of how may pubs were in Nairobi, and specifically Juja area in the outskirts of Nairobi. They also in haste cobbled-up obscure laws that supermarkets should not display or sell alcohol, that liquor stores should open up at 5pm. One law, that caught my attention was that of making alcohol expensive with an aim of deterring people from accessing it. This to me was a very silly law which obviously will lead to the proliferation of cheap liqour.

The solution to the problem is let Kenyans be. I love my kwang kwang and i want to drink it when that demon in my mind demands it. Reduce the tax on Senator (Obama) Keg beer and legalize safe and hygienic distillation of Nubian gin.

Kalonzo is irrelevant in the current political scene in Kenya

Last week there was an outrage on social media after former vice president told off a journalist on the basis of tribe. It is no secret that Kenya is stuck with UhuRuto for the next 20 years just as Russia has been stuck with Putin/Medvedev in the past 14yrs.

Kalonzo might have stirred the hornets nest to remain relevant, but the CORD coalition still remains pale and un-inspiriring. The de facto CORD leader Raila Odinga is on a sabbatical in Boston and the vacuum left at home is evident. A vacuum that Moses Wetangula and Kalonzo Musyoka combined, leave alone individually cannot fill.

Although Kenyans protestations on Kalonzo's un-witty-ness are very hypocritical (Kalonzo was just being Kenyan), it is about time long-serving leaders hung their boots. Kalonzo is a well meaning leader who has served Kenya for a long period of time and should do the honourable thing of retiring from "active" politics because the presidency might be a little far fetched for him.There is a lot of respect in bowing out voluntarily. Kubanduka kuna heshima. The same can be said of the former prime minister Raila Odinga, even he stands at better odds as far as the presidency is concerned.

Tanzania - East Africa's economic giant

Walking down the streets of Kariokor in downtown Dar es Salaam on a cloudy humid day brings me face to face with Tanzania's entrepreneurial economy.Other than the buzz enamating from flies in the filthy stinking streets connecting to Kariakor and Uhuru streets, one cannot fail to notice the number of neat buildings coming up in the once rustic East African coastal city.

This time round, i'm in Dar for official purposes and not for pleasure and on this particular day i'm in the company of an acquitance from my host institution in Dar. He is taking me to his production studios on Masasi street in the expansive Kariakor business district.

The studios duplicate (the real word is pirate) foreign movies and package them. If you have been to East Africa and seen hawkers hawking foreign Dvd's - the likes that have 20 movies in one disk - then those are the ones i'm talking about.

My friends studio also translate english movies into swahili and sometimes lands contracts to legally duplicate Tanzanian productions in agreement with the copyright holder. Please note that these studios on Masasi, Magilla and Aggrey streets don't pirate Tanzanian productions, only foreign (Western, Indian and Chinese productions).

Most of these Dvds are shipped to DR Congo and Malawi but also find their way to Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda. One shipment yields (all overheads deducted) US$ 1,200 for my friend and he ships 2 consignments in a month.

This is not the only thriving business in Dar and Tanzania in general. The country is blessed with having plenty of food. Tanzanians in general love spending money but are also the number one money savers in East Africa. The country is sorrounded by 6 land locked countries, two (DR Congo and Zambia) which are rich in minerals. The country itself is very rich in a variety of minerals. Tanzania has the second largest African elephant populations in the World which stands at 400,000. Botswana has the highest number.

Tanzania is also already producing natural gas in Mtwara, south Tanzania and is tipped to be the second largest producer of natural gas in the near future.
Kenya is a sophisticated economy but at a closer look, Tanzania's economy might be larger than Kenya's