I was in a conversation with a Kenyan back home and he really wanted to get some stuff to Kenyans in Diaspora but he was honest enough and told me that his writing is just too bad. I encouraged him to talk so that I could convert the conversation into an article for KSB. If he were to be able to write (he is literate and by writing, I mean representing his ideas in written form), I do think that he could have produced an article along the following lines.
In Kenya, mobile telephones have changed people’s lives dramatically. The miniaturization of the mobile phone, constantly changing programming and technology and an ever increasing population hungry for information are features that have all combined to elevate the phone into both an organizer and a centralized multimedia platform.
Apart from everyday communication, multimedia phones embedded with cameras are promoting casual photography like never before. Listening to the radio is no longer an exclusive indoor activity because key local radio stations are available online from where listeners can tap them through their mobile phones. Consequently, several outlets specializing in selling of mobile phones have sprouted both on the ground and online. At OLX Kenya and other mushrooming sites, anybody can buy or sell a mobile phone at an affordable price. The ready availability of mobile phones continues to promote quick communication in all sectors and this is good for the economy.
Key issues
It is for this reason that I decided to raise some key issues with Kenyans in Diaspora. Instead of routinely travelling home with a baggage of low quality, second hand goods, clothes, cameras, shoes, ma-chupi (aka athoch) and an assortment of worn-out gadgets to be given out as “presents” every krismasi to deprived relatives, you need to carry a load of mobile phones instead.
If it is second hand clothes, Kenyans have an overdose of mitumba so when you surface from abroad with another load of the same stuff, you are not bringing any development. Carry a second hand iPhone 4 instead or a Samsung galaxy then proceed to give it out as a present. A used and worn out pair of winter shoes or a heavy winter jacket is of no use to a relative because the weather is ever warm. Kenyans don’t need second hand leather jackets and for those who need them, there are enough at Gikomba market so next time, carry an Xperia tablet or any Nokia left-over instead and you will change the life of your poor relatives.
Bling bling
It is always good to have you home but please, do not always make it a habit of showing relatives and friends how much you can spend in three weeks. The tones of cash you flush around to buy booze to friends at expensive hotels while riding around in a hired Taxi or in a fuel-guzzling Prado could pay school fees for that deprived child of your uncle’s daughter up to University. Just be simple because regardless of the amount of effort you try to put into painting the image of “conqueror of the British empire”, many Kenyans now understand that you may not be having it as rosy as you want everybody to believe.
Diaspora Kenyan, travelling abroad used to be a big deal when the purpose used to be “further education”. In these modern days of the mobile phone, it is an open secret that thousands of Kenyans who make it abroad are escaping from poverty, unemployment, falling living standards, general insecurity, idleness and other maladies affecting the Nation. You may not have landed abroad because of Mwakenya but majority of your lot may be refugees of some sort – economic refugees, “greener pastures” refugees, insecurity refugees, escapees of idleness, or, in the case of those who simply wanted romance with wazungu, “romantic asylum seekers”.
In the case of romantic refugees, you may have obtained your Permanent Marriage Permit and Kenyans at home appreciate this. Now, what you need to do is to buy that brother of yours tuktuk or just a bycicle so that he can have something to do because frustrations are driving millions of youths into alcoholism. There is no need of telling your relatives that your watch costs 50,000 Kenyan shillings when your dear mom continues to fetch water far away from the river. Dig a well for her because your 50k watch is just a bling bling. If Wakenya want to see the real blings, they look for Sonko so be informed.
Instead of spending 60.000 Kenyan shillings on booze, transport and moving around with every pretty girl when you are in town, this money is enough to set up a small scale business that could sustain yoyr suffering relaz for ages. You shall have given your cousin a job to do instead of just leaving him to drink alcohol.
The worst part is that when you arrive with your flight at JKIA, the next day you are the same person boozing your alcoholic bro then when you leave, he is more deeper into his stuff than before you arrived. He was in a bad state when you arrived but as you leave, he is in a worse state, almost in a comma! This is not good Wakenya wenzangu. Next time you travel home, make sure you have at least 10 cell phones for a start and secondly, just be simple.
Okoth Osewe
About the Author
JOHN GITHONGO TOM MBOYA PLO LUMUMBA P.O BOX 23111 PO BOX 1501-00502 P.O BOX 10676-00400 NAIROBI NAIROBI NAIROBI
Emails
:
johngithongo@gmail.com
,tjmboya@gmail.com
[EMAIL=”tjmboya@gmail.com,%20pl olumumba@gmail.com“] , plolumumba@gmail.com
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OUR REF : JG/PLO/TM/UKP/2014
YOUR REF:
DATE:
H.E Hon. Uhuru M. Kenyatta EGH
President of the Republic of Kenya Commander in Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces State House Nairobi
KENYA
RE: AN OPEN LETTER ON THE STATE OF THE NATION AND CORRUPTION.
We write to you as patriotic citizens in good faith, to share our deepening concern regarding a number of issues which in our humble view threaten the soul of our beloved Nation. We do this cognizant of the fact that your administration has been in office for only nine months, and in addition to presiding over the implementation of a new constitutional dispensation and managing the execution of devolution in the face of high expectations by an impatient population. Amidst the plethora of challenges, it is our humble opinion that Kenya is not at a crossroads as doomsday sayers opine, but that we have reached a critical tipping point, hence our decision to address your Excellency on some critical issues that affect our Nation.
Corruption
Corruption has always been a Cancer in our Country’s body politic and numerous are the unresolved scandals that continue to haunt our Nation. While the ghosts of ‘Goldenberg’, ‘Anglo Leasing’, ‘Maize’, ‘Kazi kwa Vijana’ continue to dance their macabre dance of defiance; over the past few months the Country has been seized in the thrall of the proposed new ‘Standard Gauge Railway Project’ from Mombasa to Nairobi. No sooner had your Excellency launched the noble and timely project with pomp and circumstance than critical ethical issues were raised from within your administration. For example, evidence tabled before the Parliamentary Investment Committee (PIC) suggests that the contracted Company has questionable credentials, and the project cost is unclear and inflated. Given the whiff of irregularity, it is our submission that it would be prudent to immediately terminate the current process, and begin a transparent process afresh, so as to ensure efficiency and value for money.
Your Excellency’s administration took office on the promise of making a break from what you described as the ‘analog’ past to embrace a new ‘digital’ future with zero tolerance for Corruption. It is therefore worrying that under your watch a possible scandal of gigantic proportions is consolidating the widespread perception that every Kenyan President must as a way of ‘initiation’ into Office, preside over a mega corruption scandal that costs Kenyans dearly. These perceptions are easily tribalised and politicized in a manner that may make governance more difficult, to the detriment of the Country. We therefore respectfully urge your Excellency to immediately suspend the project and to make all documents germane to the Railway Contract public for scrutiny. This, in our view, will enhance your stature and spare you history’s indictment.
Cost of Living
The age old adage is that, ‘a hungry man is an angry man’. Indeed, in the last few days we have seen Kenyans vent their anger in the streets of Mombasa, Meru, Thika, Machakos, Nairobi and many more will come because of a sense of despondency. Taxation measures designed to raise money without due regard to the already unbearable cost of living will only exacerbate the situation. While we respect and even admire your administration’s desire to sustain the Country on a rapid growth trajectory, we urge you to keep public servants on a short leash and to reign in your Government officials from engaging in corrupt practices and arrant profligacy amidst sorrow and want of the majority of the Population. In the recent past, we have seen the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Supremo, whom we respect in town. If history is a good teacher, we learn from her that the long-term health of our nation not only requires but demands that we wean ourselves off the IMF, which has a history of capturing Government policy and prescribing unpalatable solutions.
Insecurity
Each and every Kenyan is mindful of the rampant insecurity that continues to plague every corner of our Nation. No-one, regardless of their station in society is exempted from the vagaries of the opportunistic criminal such as theft, carjacking, & robbery, or horrific atrocities such as that which unfolded at Westgate last September. That senior police officers are currently undergoing vetting is positive, and indicative of your administration’s cognizance of the reforms required in the security sector to improve the capacity of the Police to provide security to all Kenyans, across the country. We are also sensitive to the fact, however, that the Police is one of our ‘disciplined forces’. As such members are not so much ‘retrenched’ like as in a private company but rather demobilized with due dignity.
One of the most critical institutions in the country, the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, has in recent months been plagued by a number of incidents, ranging from the fire that consumed the International Arrivals building, to an explosion, and the discovery of sensitive security equipment in an airport toilet. The dearth of official communication on these matters exacerbates the trepidation of the public, and creates an impression not of laxity, but rather inability to secure one of the most important installations on Kenyan soil. With the memory of Westgate so fresh in our minds, it is incumbent upon the relevant organs within your administration to communicate accurate and confirmed information to the public in order to stem speculation. Furthermore, full investigation of such incidents, as well as the responses thereto must be conducted and reports made available for public scrutiny. Your Excellency, we have written this humble letter not because we have monopoly of wisdom but because like you, we love this Country and we have a patriotic, moral and constitutional duty to protect Her even with our lives.
Yours faithfully,
JOHN GITHONGO, PLO LUMUMBA, TOM MBOYA
http://www.scribd.com/doc/202184232/…and-Corruption Last edited by Dr. Job; 26th January 2014 at 15:04.
http://www.jfjustice.net/bensouda-opposes-the-defence-request-to-terminate-uhuru-case/
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Mugabe Baby>
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Will Kikuyu Accept to be led by another Moi?Message Delivered: Kalenjins tell Uhuru to back Ruto for 2017 or risk CORD defeat
Posted in: News|February 3, 2014 20 1 1 0
By Kenya Today reporter
Deputy President William Ruto fired another salvo to the Mt Kenya Mafia insisting the Jubilee government cannot win three consecutive elections.
Uhuru last year indicated that he will go for the 10 years before Ruto dreams of owning State House. However, with the disastrous manner in which the Jubilee government has run public affairs, with sky-rocketing Standard of living, tribalism and mega corruption, it is a gone conclusion that Kenyans, known for pulling firsts, will not vote in the Jubilee Alliance three times consecutively.
According to insiders, the Kalenjins are said to have categorically told Ruto to be at the ballot come 2017 and demand that Mt. Kenya backs him; that way, he can too test the whether the Kikuyus are ‘genuine friends’ and, finally, he too can also have a look at those who fixed him at the Hague like Uhuru has done.
This will lead to the final reconciliation and bring the ghosts of the 2007 violence to rest.
Ruto’s statements were carried by his hatchet man, the rebellious Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, who told Uhuru to forgo his second term and back Ruto, then get back to the presidency in 2023.
Keter warned that with the high-handedness in the Jubilee administration, skewed employment and grand corruption, it is a pipe dream that Ruto will be voted in after Uhuru in 2013. So, the early the better!
This negotiated democracy has worked in Russia where Putin and Meldev occasionally rotate who becomes the President and who serves as the Prime Minister just between the two of them.
It can happen. If Mt. Kenya backs Ruto in 2017 to a man, assuming Uhuru agrees to this arrangement; it consolidate the whole Kalenjin vote bloc and once again (with a little rigging of course) Jubilee may maintain their hold on power.
But this arrangement will face the first opposition by the Mt. Kenya Mafia. It is no secret that mosts Kikuyus are still apprehensive about the person of William Ruto.
Averag Kikuyus shudder at the thought of Ruto being the commander-in-chief more than even CORD leader Raila Odinga, or Kalonzo Musyoka. Meaning, Ruto must get express endorsement and heavy backing of the Kikuyu elites who will then, in the usual fashion, whip the holoi poloi of the house of Mumbi in voting line.
But assuming Peter Kennneth becomes a spoiler, and gets ‘hidden’ backing of Uhuru as happened when Uhuru backed Kibaki in 2002 while pretending to be himself a presidential candidate; Ruto may never make it, which will make kalenjins be very mad and the Kikuyu diaspora in the Rift Valley be very afraid.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01m0yd7
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