For Financial Sanity, Kenya Should Embrace The R-Word
When times are tough, governments declare they will slash spending and Kenyan ones are no different. Kenyans will remember when Uhuru Kenyatta, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance…
Will Kenya Ever Be Good Enough for Kenyans?
As a Kenyan living in Kenya, the last few months have been difficult to say the least. Like many others, I have watched the prices of basic goods and services quickly skyrocket.. It’s become a running joke, but the truth is that KSh 1,000 doesn’t get you much nowadays. To make life bearable under these increasingly strenuous circumstances, I’ve had to cut down my monthly spending on non essentials and started considering price over brand preferences.
“Failed Brakes”, Kenya’s Deadliest Excuse
Kenya’s enforcement of traffic laws tends to be immobile and document-based, particularly around heavy commercial vehicles. The police who enforce traffic rules are stationary, mostly on the side of the road and drivers who pass through these checkpoints can always warn their oncoming colleagues. On the other hand, roaming police cars with cameras that scan number plates and onboard computers connected to insurance and police records would pinpoint offenders in real time and help police stop the right vehicles more often. Such police cars are commonly used in many countries.
No One in Nairobi Knows Their Height
How tall exactly is 6 ‘0? If I presented 5 people to you, would you be able to pick out the one that is 6 ‘0 accurately?
When Will the #MeToo Movement Reach the UN?
The #MeToo movement has been instrumental in raising awareness about the everyday violations and indignities that female athletes and women from all walks of life have to endure at the hands of men, a lot of times powerful men who can affect fates. It has also encouraged more women to sue their abusers, even if the abusers are rich and powerful. And an increasing number of courts across the world are ruling in favour of the victims. In May, for instance, a New York jury found former US President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store, and awarded the latter $5 million in damages. Trump has been denying the charge all along, and even claims to not know who Carroll is. He is appealing the decision.
The Thing About Kids
I don’t have children but I spend a lot of time around them because most of my friends are parents. I find that if you want to continue a friendship with people with children, then you have to learn how to enjoy the company of children because more often than not, children will be the loud, chaotic, messy third wheels to your hangouts. That’s how friendships work. The best ones change and evolve and adapt to circumstances. They demand generosity and grace, which they give back in equal measure. And they allow you to experience things that you would never otherwise experience, like being tasked with entertaining two little girls on a Saturday morning.
The Impending Political Deal, a Struggling Economy and a Disaffected Populace
So, assuming that Azimio la Umoja One Kenya can sustain either the Bomas of Kenya Talks or yet another wave of protests, what is the end game really? Kenya’s history shows that the prize is likely to be an elite compromise by which a power sharing arrangement of some form or shape may be struck. William Ruto has said he will never do it, and Raila Odinga has said he doesn’t want it, but this is what is going to happen. There is no other way for the two protagonists to walk away satisfied. The status quo ante bellum is such that their hands are tied; they are in the same boat.
Stop the Violence in Our Homes, Schools, and Streets!
A few years ago, I asked a departing French diplomat what his impressions were about Kenya. I expected him to say how beautiful the country was, how nice the weather was and how much he would miss the country and its people. To my surprise, he told me that his experience of the country convinced him that Kenya is a violent society.
Chapter Six Is Under Attack. Does Anyone Care?
In 2016, a near-brawl broke-out in the Kenyan Senate. The respective combatants were Evans Kidero, the then Governor of Nairobi County, and Mike Mbuvi Sonko, his Senator. It is not clear who won the actual fight, but we now know that Nairobians lost because the Auditor General just told us so. You see, during the consecutive gubernatorial administrations of Evans Kidero and Mike Sonko, no-one could explain the whereabouts of KSh 18 billion of collected revenue. For those who think in hard currencies, that is a respectable $12.6 million missing. But Nairobi residents didn’t know this until seven years later when the press finally reported that according to the Auditor General, “billions of shillings collected in Kenya’s capital may have ended in private hands.”
Sticky Presidential Pardons, and A Call for the Pardoning of Dedan Kimathi and Others
Just over a month ago, it came to light that President William Ruto has, on the advice of the Advisory Committee on the Power of Mercy, freed 5,058 petty convicts, commuted sentences for death row prisoners to life imprisonment, and pardoned 37 convicts including Dr. Davy Koech, once famous for his attempt in the 1980s to find an AIDS cure, but recently notorious for mismanagement of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KeMRI). For obvious reasons, the July 2023 Presidential Pardon List has been added to the ever increasing number of complaints about President Ruto’s use of executive power, daily compiled by his opponents, as if he had usurped the prerogative of mercy for himself.
