SEMA NISEME

When Raila left the NARC government and orchestrated a successful no vote against the referendum, he set in motion a national euphoria that would turn critical in his near triumphal in the disputed 2007 elections. That he was kingmaker in 2002 led to his perceived status as being powerfully at par with Kibaki.

I admire and respect Raila’s tenacity - his enduring campaign for reform and fight against graft. This now sadly confronts him with a tragic quagmire. Unfortunately and to his bitter realization, his political rise may have reached its zenith-and the nadir is beckoning.

Why do I say this? First the coalition government which he is second in command has failed. Many believed their messiah was Raila. Today as Kenyans witness corrupt scandals and ODM luminaries perceived as culpable, Raila stands accused. Unlike 2007 when he stood on high moral ground and claimed things were wrong because he wasn’t in government, he is the de-facto deputy.

Secondly, that Raila has fallen out with two of the pentagon should trouble him as each represents a strategic voting block. Tragically and in spite of warnings, Raila failed to tame Hon Ruto- a ruthless Machiavellian of no equivalent. Raila was happy to unleash Ruto on his enemies but is now paying heavily in kind.

Is Raila so gullible and easily hoodwinked by euphoria to miss the important details? First he was duped by Moi-remember NDP? Then twice by Kibaki (MOU) and the National accord which greatly favours PNU.Were he to walk away today, Kibaki would reconstitute government without the ODM. With the bounty that goes with ministerial office, there are many takers- overwhelmingly Raila’s enemies who would delight in his political demise.

The unfortunate tragedy of history is that good people don’t win at crucial moments-and Raila’s enemies understand this better than he.

Each of the pentagon individuals’ hold ambitions beyond being Raila’s subordinate-and crucially only self preservation binds them to Raila. Would Musalia Mudavadi for example turn down the premiership were an eventuality to make this a possibility. Asking MPs to resign especially those from Rift valley, Coast or Western would mean losing MPs-further weakening his already precarious position.

Significantly most of Raila’s political associates such as Ngilu, Balala, Nyongo, Orengo, and Joe Nyaga don’t necessarily support him because they believe in anything he represents- but because of what he is able to help them achieve at a particular point in time. The latter three would not be MPs outside ODM- all have at some point been on Raila’s opposite spectrum. If Mudavadi is made PM- and Ruto a deputy PM -Raila’s fate will be sealed. This possibility must not be ignored.

Raila should realize that as many people as support him- so exist others who viciously disagree and dislike him. Many of those who voted for Raila did so because he revolted against a gluttonous government they disliked. As JJ Kamotho once said of Matiba’s Ford Asili, in some Kenyan regions, a dog as ODM candidate would have been elected!

Thirdly while Kenyans supported the coalition government- and tolerated a cabinet of 40, they expected genuine change. The person they looked to deliver was not Kibaki-he represented the status quo they were opposed to. He has failed dismally on this count.

Feted by world powers especially Britain as a new start in Kenya’s governance, Raila now seems unable to confront the ills that bedevil Kenya. He was hoodwinked into basking in the glory of support - and incarcerated by his ego-failed to recognize the severity of the expectations bestowed on and expected of him by his supporters. The day of reckoning is nearing with every corruption revelation about this scandalous government whose activities he supposedly oversees.

That some of his closet allies are today in the spotlight over theft of maize-which impoverished ODM supporters paid dearly for has acted to confirm what many quietly feared-that besides propaganda and a desire to get power at any cost, ODM was merely an egocentric talk shop of chronically power hungry malcontents.  Savvy politicians avoid over promising during electioneering period. This is the cardinal sin Raila committed. It’s almost inconceivable he will deliver a tenth of the promises he made in 2007. Kibera remains Kibera. With the tough economic climate hitting hardest his core supporters, Raila is on the wrong side of history. I will say without fear of contradiction that come 2012 the most bitter Kenyans -largely owing to poverty will be those who almost to a man voted ODM.

Fourthly there is a powerful feeling that the older generation has dreadfully failed Kenya. At sixty five, Raila would not claim to be youthful-he may belong to a past no longer relevant. By 2012 Raila’s international supporters such as Britain’s Gordon Brown will most certainly be out of office. A new generation of younger and shrewder leaders will be in-charge. The possibility that American foreign policy dictum would sway in Raila’s favour is a mirage. The world’s political landscape will be different and the desire to do deals with a sixty plus political activist will ill fit with the challenges of then.

If the coalition survives to 2012, Raila will and with great mortification realise that populist politicians are waning in appeal and what Kenyans need is leadership that delivers bread and butter to the many; which he has been unable to deliver in opposition or in government. Come then there will be new political alignments determined to block his ascendancy to the presidency.

Raila’s support for anything foreign from a UN army to restore peace, a foreigner as chair of the electoral commission, to the FBI have shown a man prone to grave judgment that one wonders what faith he has in the Kenyans he so desperately want to lead.

He may wish to learn a lesson from John Howard- once a popular Australian prime minister who lost both his parliamentary seat and prime ministerial position in 2008 -when his views were no longer relevant to the Australian voter.

I am a nondescript Kenyan. Raila or his aides need not heed my counsel; however these may form part of the appendices they will use in writing his political obituary. Hopefully, I will be available to offer my political condolences.

The writer is a lecturer in the United Kingdom.

akkamotho@yahoo.co.uk

It would be really ‘unproductive’ if I didn’t share this with you guys. It’s an excerpt from a paper by Robert Halls and Charles Jones on reasons behind differences in economic development across different societies. I particularly love the blatancy and wider application of the second paragraph here but I included one the one above and one below to give it the proper context intended by the authors. It goes like this:

The fundamental determinant of a country’s
long-run economic performance is its social infrastructure. By
social infrastructure we mean the institutions and government
policies that provide the incentives for individuals and firms in an
economy. Those incentives can encourage productive activities
such as the accumulation of skills or the development of new
goods and production techniques, or those incentives can encourage
predatory behavior such as corruption and
theft. (Diversion).

Productive activities are vulnerable to predation. If a farm
cannot be protected from theft, then thievery will be an attractive
alternative to farming. A fraction of the labor force will be
employed as thieves, making no contribution to output. Farmers
will spend more of their time protecting their farms from thieves
and consequently grow fewer crops per hour of effort.

Social control of diversion has two benefits. First, in a society
free of diversion, productive units are rewarded by the full
amount of their production: where there is diversion, on the other
hand, it acts like a tax on output. Second, where social control of
diversion is effective, individual units do not need to invest
resources in avoiding diversion. In many cases, social control is
much cheaper than private avoidance. Where there is no effective
social control of burglary, for example, property owners must hire
guards and put up fences. Social control of burglary involves two
elements. First is the teaching that stealing is wrong. Second is
the threat of punishment. The threat itself is free: the only
resources required are those needed to make the threat credible.
The value of social infrastructure goes far beyond the notion that
collective action can take advantage of returns to scale in avoidance.
It is not that the city can put up fences more cheaply than
can individuals: in a city run well, no fences are needed at all.

Reference: Halls and Jones, ‘Why Do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker Than Others?’ Quarterly Journal of Economics , February 1999, Vol. 114, No. 1, Pages 83-116

Trust is perhaps one of the most interesting words and concepts I have ever come across. Its mundane usage and analogies are quite insightful as well. For example, trust is like virginity, once broken, that’s it! But we also hear of secondary virginity today, so there perhaps is also such a thing as secondary trust?

In business and economics, trust has been argued to be a major factor in determining business organisation and economic development. Trust in this context is viewed for example in terms of delivering things on time and in the right quality, paying the due dues and doing it promptly, and basically doing everything as agreed and in good faith. Here, it is argued for example that the American type humongous corporation emerges as low trust between small and medium businesses doing different but interdependent economic activities would make it impossibly costly to do business between themselves. Examples include, components not delivered on time or in the right quality harming the business of the other business, late or non-payment jeopardising the very existence of the partner firm, huge legal costs of taking contractors to court for breaching agreements, etc. As such, to avoid these sorts of problems, a business sees it safest to bring most of these production stages in-house if it can obtain enough capital to increase its size, or to do business only within a small cartel-like circle of a select few businesses popularly known as, you bet, a ‘trust’!

This of course means that people who would have been entrepreneurs making the different components in their own independent small businesses become employees now doing as instructed and supervised in their highly specialised narrow job roles with little information on what’s going on in the rest of the business and with little involvement in the decision-making processes lest they get to know too much and use this to undercut the business by starting their own or selling information to the competitors. Low trust. High trust on the other hand would yield co-operative entrepreneurs or small economic producers with high expertise in their respective areas and trusting each other to do their best in the different stages/parts of production they undertake and sharing ideas and knowledge in co-ordinated decision-making and helping each other out for the good of the whole system. Am I being too utopian here? I don’t think so. That’s how Swiss watches were made for many years and that’s how most designer Italian suits and furniture and shoes and industrial machines get manufactured and those areas have sustained high levels of innovation and economic development and equality of incomes and socio-economic statii.

Obviously, cynics (masquerading as pragmatists!) will argue that those are exceptions and that big business means economies of scale, low costs, and other monopolistic benefits hence higher profits, ‘higher’ wages for workers, more innovation, economic development. But alas, the spoils are skewed towards the top management and owners rather than somewhat equitably amongst the various producers. No surprises there. Now, also, it is unlikely that these decision-making rewards-raking top management people who preside over a very wide array of activities within the business are experts in all these activities. Thus, they will make some unwise decisions that will lead to inefficiencies. These inefficiencies will in turn make the whole business shaky and unsustainable, and this will eventually slow the wider economy down. General Motors, anyone? The larger the size of the business, the harder it will fall, and the severer the consequences to everybody in terms of for example, the number of jobs that will be lost when the colossus collapses. Thus, the few advantages of low trust advantage only a few, the massive disadvantages disadvantage the entire mass.

Of course, in the absence of the large businesses, with low trust you will have a zillion micro-businesses attempting to do everything in-house and thus, the zillion jacks of all trades unable to master any trade will not advance in anything and the scattered individuals will collectively suffer from economic misery and even more distrust! More distrust will yield ill will, sadism, sabotage, malice and craftiness even in the pettiest of petty cash dealings. Thus, the disadvantages of low trust will yet further disadvantage the already disadvantaged!

Away from my business and economic obsessions, trust and/or lack of it has huge implications in any area you could think of! In love and relationships, politics and dictatorships, wolves and the skins of sheep, pirates and Indian Ocean ships, families and inheritance, colleagues and promotion hunts, tribes and election stunts, governments and the use of tax. The list is endless! Trust is needed in huge quotients everywhere! Trust is primary. But if you are trusting, you are naive. If trustworthy, use and abuse-worthy. Is there such thing as secondary virginity? If there is, is there a chance for trust too?

One Sunday morning,
I turn and turn and turn,
It’s @dawn and my alarm goes on
I try to get out of bed but still I feel sleepy
My lovely brother knocks my door twice
He wakes me up and we join hands for a morning prayer
As he walks out my mum calls my name
Reminds me that we are riding to church in the same van
I step to the living room and my sister embraces me with a warm hug
I proceed to take a bath
When I walk from shower everybody is at the table room
A delicious meal has been prepared by my mum and sister
We all sit and enjoy our meal

We ride to church and sit on the same bench
The sermon is good but I can’t wait to be with my family @ home
We listen to country music which is dads’ preference
Later in the day we go to play soccer with my siblings
We get home tired and refresh ourselves with cool drinks
Night time comes and we are ready to retire to bed
Few words of wisdom from mum and dad to the family
This marks the end of the day yet the life continues
As I get to my room, I leave mum and daddy at the couch
Holding each other, as they watch the TV
I admire the love of their long lived lives
Get to my room and enjoy my favorite movies as rest in bed
Its time to sleep now
What a lovely day
What a great day spent with a loving family
I miss my family
I love my family
What a wonderful family
However how apart we are to each other
I cherish the old good memories

Lastly, you never know what it means to be with your family,
Until you live in a far country for a long time
Enjoy every moment with your family as much as you can,
Learn to forgive each other and bear with one another
There is no perfect family but there is a loving and caring family
Long live peaceful and joyful families
S.K.M

Landing in Diaspora
The evening comes and I rush to JKIA airport
More than 50 friends have come to see me off
We take photos, hugs in bounty
I look at my mother and I see tears in her eyes
She is both happy to see me off to further my studies
And sad to know I will be gone for many years
My dad is speechless and so are my other siblings
I take my bag and proceed to escalator
I wave at my friends and start feeling lonely and lost
My mum is left looking through transparent mirror at airport
I board the plane and the journey starts
I try to sleep but I can’t fall asleep
The attendants ask what I would like to eat or drink
Unable to hear the accent I say yes to everything
Despite learning English since kindergarten,
I feel my English is different from hers
She brought raw broccoli
And I try to taste, I almost threw up
That was my first time to taste raw broccoli
It tasted awful then, but I like it nowadays
The journey is long and tiring, my first time to fly
My first time outside my country, what an experience!!

We land at London
Am so fearful and I sit for hours waiting for the next flight
I board the flight and we land at Chicago airport
I sit next to my luggage at the bench waiting for flight to Louisville
A white man who worked for airport security sat beside me
He engaged me with questions about my nationality
I was ready to teach him Kenya
He made me feel very comfortable as he welcomed me to Diaspora
The moments were so good that I felt very relaxed
I decided to walk around and see more on the airport
Meanwhile, I left my luggage at the waiting area and walked around
(Little did I know that it is illegal to leave un-attended luggage)
I bought some cakes and a drink
As I sat down an airport officer started questioning why I left my bag
I said, “This is my bag and nobody can take it at the airport”
As we talked several police officers arrive and it became a scene
Lucky enough the flight attendant that I was “teaching” about Kenya,
Came and pleaded with them that I didn’t know bags must be attended all the times
After this episode I went to check about my flight,
It had left 5 minutes earlier
I was shocked but I maintained my cool
No more flight to Louisville for that day!!!
I felt shivers in my spine cord
I was like OMG! Ngai fafa! Mungu wangu! What can I do??
Airport officials realized my agony,
They allowed to board in airport hotel
A 300lb guy (who missed flight as well) offered to assist me to settle in the room
We boarded a shuttle to the hotel
I got to the room and this guy came to wish me a good night
He terrified me to death coz I was afraid of getting raped by a 300lb person
Anyway I woke up the following day and proceeded to airport departure area
Departed and arrived safely at Louisville
A Brazilian couple picked me from airport to school
They were nice people and bought me the lunch
I was well received by the cross-country team
I have the welcome poster they had made
One guy wrote “to be the man you got to beat the man”
He was the best runner in the team and he scared heck out of me
I was the only person with different color in my team
I was taken to Wal-Mart to buy my necessities
I grabbed u number of things
When time for paying came I thought my good friends had my back
Anyway I paid and we proceeded to a restaurant
It was so hard to order any kind food
Everything sounded French to me
The food came and I tried to eat the “new” foods
They drove me to my room and left

I contemplated whether to sleep or sit down,
As I sat down in the room;
A 270lb dark guy walks in
His neck tilted to the side as he talked on the cell phone
He was carrying a basket full of clothes
I expected a welcome from my new roommate
His shorts were half-way his butt nearly falling down
He placed the basket down and started walking out
I took the initiative to introduce myself
He told me his name and walked out
I was left wondering, O.M.G! Is this real?
You know I come from a society known for our hospitality
It was strange for someone not saying hello
Anyway he was nice guy somehow introvert
That night I did not get any sleep
An experience I will never forget
My brother called me and we spent hours talking
The moral of the story is
If you go to a new society be prepared for any eventuality.
That was me and tomorrow it might be you.

By Wangari Muraguri

I am sure we have all read or heard of the Parable of the Talents haven’t we? No? Ok, I will break it down in a nutshell… Some rich man was going on a trip. Before he left, he gave 1 of his minions 5grand (ok they called them talents at the time but money sounds better…ching ching!), another got 2grand and yet another one got 1grand. Rich man then headed off and after a long time came back and asked his minions to settle their accounts. The one who got 5grand had made another 5 so brought back 10, the one with 2grand had also made another 2 and brought back 4 but the one with a grand did eff all with their cash (buried it in fact) so he just brought back a grotty, moth eaten grand. He got a real telling off for being soo lazy and useless and even the grand he had was taken away from him and given to the one who had made 10grand.

I always thought it was unfair of the rich man to tell off the lazy/useless minion, I mean its not like he lost the cash, he did bring back what he was given but as I have grown older and thought about it more, it makes sense.

In life, we are all given talents – I am not talking about the amazing talents of the child prodigies who can play Bach at the age of 3, or swim like Michael Phelps or master the heart like KK (remember him?) - No, I am talking the basic things like common sense, the ability to make friends, listen, love, and even laugh. These are our God-given talents. Most of us are so afraid to use ours – we are afraid to love because we fear we will be rejected or laughed at or get our heart broken. We are afraid to start new projects/businesses because we are afraid to fail, lose money or go bankrupt. We are afraid to make friends because we are afraid people will discover we snort when we laugh or that we spend a disproportionate amount of time applying powder to our noses otherwise they shine so bright you can see us from the moon. So we bury our talents – we close up our hearts, we squirrel away our money and we sneer at anyone who tries to be friendly.

But then, there are others who take their talent and use it. Michael Jackson was one of those people. Granted, he was ridiculously talented but there are others who are as talented maybe even more so but are never heard of. Or don’t shine their lights so bright.

Michael shone.

He started to sing aged only 8 and he gave his life over completely to his art. He wanted to reach the world with his music and he did. He broke barriers, he touched lives and he brought ridiculously good music to us all. Today his name is as ubiquitous as Coca-cola. Yet, he was a seriously flawed man. There was the plastic surgery, the really dirty business with the children, the lawsuits, bankruptcy, Bubbles… there is soo much that was wrong with him. And we laughed at him, we rejected him, we jeered. But we also loved him and most of us will acknowledge that he touched our lives in one way or another. For me, music will be forever intertwined with Michael, I remember hearing his songs from when I was a little tot, I remember the ceremony of watching his videos (which never disappointed, Remember The Time for me was especially special) and even today, his music sounds just as fresh as it did when he released it. He was amazing. And if we are to be judged by how much we used our talents, Michael can expect to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” and as far as I am concerned, it will be truly deserved.

Rest In Peace Michael.

It is a controversial, even taboo subject among some, but the fact is that a number of career women are losing their families and homes to their house helps. In their quest for a impressive academic credentials a successful career and enviable social network, they forget to nurture what is probably the most important part of their lives – their families.

The result is that they wake up several years later to find that they have lost their families. Their children have developed into secretive, broody and rebellious teenagers while their husbands, whom they long stopped giving serious thought to, have become emotionally withdrawn and carved out a new life for themselves.

Women who have found themselves in such a position will probably relate to Margaret Mwangi.

Two years ago, 41-year-old Margaret Mwangi (not her real name), a senior manager in one of the largest banks in the country, thought she had it all. Already a Masters degree holder, she was a year into studying for a PhD in financial management and had won several awards for her outstanding performance.

She was earning good money and had extensive contacts. But as she rode the wave of her success, she forgot to channel the same effort and energy she directed at her career towards her husband of 14 years and three children.

Margaret would be up by 4 a.m. to get ready for the day’s numerous strategic meetings and for mandatory 30-minute jog around her upmarket neighbourhood.

She would leave the house at 6a.m., as her husband and children were waking up to prepare for the day. Thanks to Martha, the efficient and capable house-help she had had for eight years, Margaret knew that her family was in good hands.

Martha would prepare a healthy breakfast, ensure that everyone’s clothes, including her husband’s, were ironed and laid out and that their shoes were polished.

Given Margaret’s busy schedule, including her daily evening classes which ended at 8p.m., she usually got home at around 9 p.m., tired to the bone. By then, the children were in bed, having had supper and completed their homework with Martha’s help. In Margaret’s mind, she was a good mother and dedicated wife since she ensured that her family was well taken care of.

But due to her constant absence from home, her once close and loving relationship with her husband faded, to be replaced by a cordial one, devoid of emotion and passion. Their conversations were perfunctory and usually, after asking about each other day, she would take a shower, have a quick meal then collapse in bed, exhausted, with things that needed to be done at work the next day going in her mind.

She could not even recall the last time she and her husband had been intimate, but this did not really bother her. According to her, all marriages lost the initial fire they had after a couple of years. After all, hadn’t her friends confessed that they were going through a similar experiences?

That’s why Margaret was shell-shocked when her 45-year-old husband announced that he was marrying another woman last year. But nothing could have prepared her for the bombshell that he dropped shortly thereafter — the other woman was Martha!

http://www.nation.co.ke/magazines/satur … index.html

 You have to love Karma. It gets the bad people with the bad and the good people with the good. What comes around goes around. Although I do not appreciate Karma all the time (I am a good person , dammit!) it seems to take care of me when I least expect it. Now, I just need to convince Karma that I need to win the lotto and all will be good. So, Karma got me back (in a good way) this past weekend.

I recently was out of work for 4 months trying to sort out my makaratasi. The stress, frustration, and just stupidity of the homeoffice (immigration) were just crazy. It took every ounce of strength in my body to sort my mortage, feed the kids and keep the spirits up not to mention maintain my mental balance – I thought I was going nuts. That was until I go the mail on Saturday…..

It was like any other normal Saturday morning: the sun was out and the day was just perfect. (Except for the fact that I lost my voice and had a sever amount of antibiotics in me fighting a bacterial infection….got to love Zithromax) So I took my drugged up self and went to my letter-box. To my surprise there was an envelope from the inland Revenue. “What the fuck now?”, I said to myself. My anger boiled in me to the point I could feel my heart starting to pound. I aggressively opened the perforated envelope and got the biggest surprise.

“Dear Lynn:
According to our records you have an outstanding balance of £3213.44 in overpaid taxes. Find enclosed a cheques of the same. You can contact us at 0845-XXX-XXXX.”

WHAT!!?? (Yes, you read correctly). I had not a clue that I had overpaid taxes. So ran up to my newphew and said, ‘I got a cheques which am not sure if it will clear or it’s a hoax , I will put it into my bank if it clears then I will give you £100 to spend so pray. How freakin’ cool is THAT!!!??? I guess this means “I WON!!!!” not to mention my makaratasi’s were in the post as well.

This Too Shall Pass

This too shall pass is one quote thats got me through a lot of tough times. No matter what’s going on in your life, no matter where you are and how horrid it seems - It too shall pass.

Unfortunately I can’t say how long it will take but the one thing you shouldn’t do when going through a tough patch is lock yourself up and stop living your life. Spend time with your friends, have a good ol’ cry if you want to , down a few drinks if you’re that way inclined and if like me you love to dance get those those dancing shoes on and fukuza the uzee……

I know its easier said than done- I’ve been through a few tough patches myself thinking, this is too darn hard, too painful but you know what? It passes or at least it fades. In all honesty, what’s the point of dwelling on a problem? If there is something you can do to solve it then do it. If there is nothing you can do about it, then accept the situation as it is and move on.

So, If you’re having a rough day take a few minutes, pause, and know that it too shall pass.