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Issues the forthcoming EAC summit should deal with expeditiously
Another East African Community Summit is here with us. Once more all roads will be leading to the Arusha International Conference Centre in Tanzania with pomp and glory. As expected, large motorcades preceded by technical committees and the Council of Ministers, will spell out the direction the Community will take in the next few years.
Endless National Tragedies in Kenya
The fourteen prominent Kenyans who died last week were not the first and neither will they be the last to perish in senseless accidents that need not occur in this day and age.
A tribute to our fallen soldiers of peace.
This piece is dedicated to my friend of thirty years, Dr. Bonaya Godana and his comrades who perished with him in an air crash in Marsabit. The Godana I knew was an intellectual of no mean repute yet he was never mesmerised by his achievements or academic credentials. He remained just Godana, our Godana.
How secure are we Kenyans within our borders and from external enemies?
I saw that poor widow in Busia talking at her husband's funeral. She was daring enough to point an accusing finger at Vice President Moody Awori along with other government officials seated at a VIP tent. Her anger was not misplaced and neither was she alone. Fourteen other families were going through the same motions, wondering aloud why their loved ones and bread winners had to die such senseless deaths.
Of national prayers and Kenyans' self inflicted sufferings
Yes, the week before it was one of wailing, mourning and burials; and costly burials at that. The amount of public funds used on burying the fourteen gallant Kenyans who perished in a plane crash in Marsabit a few days earlier demonstrated that this country has endless resources to alleviate poverty and lawlessness if only there was the will to do so from our governors.
Kenya urgently needs a tough sexual offences law
Let our MPs accept one fact; we cannot kill this Bill because of our past cultural practices which we ourselves have discarded. The truth is we have a serious problem in society. Young lives are being destroyed for lack of an appropriate law to deal with the problem. We have no reason to justify the death of a Bill that seeks to protect infants, children and the aged from barbaric sexual attacks. In this society the strong must provide security for the weak if we have to remain civilized.
Is press freedom under threat in Kenya?
The unprecedented press freedom which has been hailed as an example to the whole of Africa if not the entire world is definitely under threat if the events of the last two months are anything to go by. This time round, it would look like not only are nosy reporters under threat. The very media houses that employ hundreds of journalists along with a couple of thousands of correspondents, newspaper vendors, distributors and advertising agencies are under siege too.
Who will tell the world that Burundi is now a peaceful country?
This was the plea of the Burundian Minister for Planning in her closing remarks at the end of a four day UNECA Regional Consultative Conference on trade, food security, regional integration and infrastructure development.
Very soon, Martha Karua and Amos Kimunya will be our heroes!
As ordinary Kenyan workers continued to carry the burden of taxation to pay for this class's luxuries, our masters in the same vein continued to enjoy endless tax holidays. Now Kimunya plans to raise close to Ksh. 1 billion annually from this group. That kind of cash can do wonders for development in rural areas. It is time fat cats shed off some fat for public good.
The aftermath of the Artur brothers
A lot has been said about the Artur brothers since the invasion of the Standard and KTN premises three months ago. Yet, there is one ominous thing that seems to have not come out in the press. I have decided to make this missing point the subject of this article.
Ugandans be warned; The Artur Brothers are on their way to Kampala!
Since their deportation from Kenya after their stage-managed airport debacle, a lot of rumour has been doing the rounds concerning the Artur brothers. One such rumour was that they had accompanied President Kibaki to the Kampala feat which the Nairobi State House has swiftly rubbished as a figment of political imagination.
The Republic of Kenya national opinion poll was quite telling in more ways than one
At last, another pollster released its national results early this week. This was fresh air, coming as it was with the latest soap opera, the Artur saga engulfing the nation one more time in as many months.
Foreign media does not have to report Africa positively. That is the reponsibility of the African Journalist!
And the beat goes on and on as usual and as expected. Every media conference one attends anywhere in Africa, it is the same old song over and over again; that Western media is biased against the continent; that it depicts the continent in the most despicable way possible; what with pictures of misery, ethnic civil wars, famine, violence, poverty and corruption; no one can see any hope for Africa through the lenses of the Western camera.
In all these anti-corruption merry-go-rounds the only losers are the Kenyan Taxpayers
The roots of official corruption in Kenya are deeper than we think. The struggle against official corruption has become a class struggle. The higher you are in the echelons of power whether past or present, the better the chances you have of getting away with corruption- officially in a court of law!
In modern day geopolitical power play, small and powerless nations are on their own
A few years ago, Kenya led the IGAD to find an African solution to an African problem in Somalia and Sudan. She did it with relative success. Although the Somalia peace accord is faltering, there is urgent need for Africa to keep trying. Being on a permanent war mode with one another will never help any of them. The world has become a global village and mutual coexistence is the order of the day.
Salim Amin's A24 TV channel must succeed because there is no other choice
As much as the Americans and the British feel obliged to influence world opinion through their own media, the Arabs, united under Islam and threatened by the invasion of Western culture, military power and the imposition of Western brand of democracy on their soil; they have reason enough to establish on an ideological basis, their equivalent of BBC World and CNN because as Muslims and Arabs, they are at war with the Western Alliance.
John Garang: A Year Later
Most Sudanese I talked to, even expatriates who have lived in Juba for the last year and more seemed to share her view; that the mystery of Garang's death; his behaviour in the last few days before he met his death beg more questions than answers.
Blind and reckless patriotism is dangerous for our country and world peace
Because of patriotism, Americans were ruled by the fear of Communism for half a century from McCarthyism mania of the 1950s up to the end of the 1980s. Because of patriotism, the Klu Klux Clan terrorised Black people in America for centuries. They wanted to keep America White. The same mentality informed the apartheid reign of terror in South Africa for close to a century. Need we forget Adolf Hilter's pure race mentality that made him send all manner of other races to the gallows and and slaughter six million Jews in the Second World War?
Has Kenya become a nation of hecklers?
Why is it that every time there is a new initiative to jumpstart the constitution review, we all stand up and start jumping and kicking in all directions? Have we become a nation that can only thrive in chaos? Where is the guided and tamed intellectualism that should inform such important discussions like the constitution review?
Barack Obama loves Luos but please let him be American and do his work as an American Senator!
As much as the clamour to meet Obama among the Luos was understandable, the desire itself was as misplaced as every Kalenjin demanding to meet President Moi during his presidency on the basis that he was a fellow Kalenjin.
Governance and Ethics: The challenge of many African governments and their institutions
Are governance, ethics and moral rectitude the bane of our problems at the national and continental level? Why has Africa become the killing field of all manner of good initiatives? Why is it that when we start a new initiative like the EAC, NEPAD, IGAD, APRM or the African Development Bank, it gains more currency outside Africa faster than it does at home?
Shirikisho La Africa Ya Mashariki .....
Shirikisho La Africa Ya Mashariki ...Where shall we find great men & women of East Africa to lead us to the promised land?
24 hrs of a Kenyan refugee in Somalia - Finding friends in unlikely quarters!
May be it is high time the international community paid more attention to the aspirations of the Islamic Courts Union and their counterparts in Somaliland up North. These two breakaway groups have restored meaningful security into their areas of control in the former United Republic of Somalia
Tanzanians - Brutally honest about their feelings toward the East African Federation
Some Tanzanians claim that the idea of fast-tracking the political federation may itself have negative impact on Tanzanians because it is likely to water down the Community spirit in some parts of East Africa particularly in their country.
Should the East African Federation be fast-tracked or allowed to go stage by stage?
Fast tracking the East African Federation may take two scenarios concurrently. One is to carry on with the three processes of the Customs Union, the Common Market and the Monetary Union concurrently rather than step by step. This way the time to complete the processes may considerably be shortened to bring forward the fourth stage which is the political federation. The other scenario is where all those three stages are running concurrently.
Can the East African Economic Integration be sustained without a central political authority?
What makes big markets like the USA, India, China, Russia and Nigeria work? All these economies enjoy the comfort of a single authority. Power has to emanate from a single source with clear rules and guidelines on how to exercise them. If the centre is working and holding, the rest will work.
Nyanza politicians must learn to see beyond self interest
When we elect our Members of Parliament to represent us in the National Assembly, we expect them to have risen in vision beyond clan and village politics. We expect their voices of reason to be heard at the national level on national issues. We expect them to think Kenyan.
The saga of having a new Constitution in Kenya, in an election year
The amazing thing about Kenyans is that they are very poor students of history; even history that is as recent as two or three years. Sometimes our optimism goes beyond natural expectations; making us repeat the most obvious silly mistakes in our life time.
The Beauty and Shame of Kenya's Constituency Development Fund - CDF
Perhaps the beauty of the CDF has been lost in the shameless management structure that the Act put in place at its inception. The Act was ill- conceived when it gave sitting MPs the power and glory to mismanage it. Gory tales coming out of nearly 70% of all constituencies attest to gross mismanagement, theft, fraud and sheer shameless misuse and misappropriation of this public fund.
Interesting comparative CDF figures in Nyando District
Modern communication facilities especially the internet has made it impossible to horde information; at least not to everybody. This is what I learnt from a little known website I came across just the other week. Kanoassociation.com led me to several GK sites that tell how CDF funds have been allocated and spent per province and constituency.
Kudos to the East African Community
There are a million reasons why the people of East Africa should celebrate the entry of Rwanda and Burundi into the East African Community. Some of these reasons are definitely economic while others are political and cultural. All of these reasons are pretty important for the economic, social and political survival of the region in an era where mergers in the corporate world and integration among nations are the order of the day.
Kenya: A Classic Case of a Nation Stuck in The Mud!
This week's fresh encounter with the State Police in the era of President Kibaki was a stark reminder that we are not yet out of the woods. Our past sad history of police brutality, state terror and human rights violations have come back to haunt us. If we didn't have these scenes as frequently in the last four years, it was a lull before a storm.
The changing face of the East African Community
Now that the celebrations are over after admitting the latest additions to the East African Community, serious reflections, soul searching and head scratching must follow to make the expanded community work. Along with the benefits of an expanded market and promising social and economic activity, will come serious challenges that must be tackled urgently by the region's present governors and policy makers if the community has to work.
Waruinge, Pattni & other criminals are creations of Kenya's dysfunctional judicial system
In the present Kenya, the police can shoot an innocent person, call him the "most wanted criminal," and the matter ends there; no inquest, no investigations; case closed. Only in Kenya can one murder a prominent politician and get away with with it as long as one is on the right side of the political power of the day. Only in Kenya can one loot the treasury dry and then reward himself with the chairmanship of a political party!
Ordinary East Africans Must Safeguard The Gains of The East African Community
If this Migingo thing is not sorted out fast and amicably, East Africa will witness the worst humanitarian catastrophe never witnessed before in the last 40 years, because, unlike in the past when Kenya was the last refuge for fleeing victims of war in the region; it will this time be consumed by the same civil strife. If this happens, business will completely grind to a halt in Kenya right from the port of Mombasa and spread all the way to Kinshasa, Mwanza, Bujumbura, ...
Africa's regional economic blocks, just like the AU, are in love with our dictators
The just ended Comesa Summit in Harare was once again an eye opener. It displayed to the world once again that democracy talks that we normally hear of from the lips of our heads of state are just that; lip service. Most African leaders hate democracy in all its forms, including those who came to power through the barrel of the gun claiming then to be fighting for justice decades gone by.

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