Viewers of today’s feature presentation, The Massacre at Anfield 3, may feel they are watching a repeat of last years feature, which we reviewed on Mentalacrobatics here.
We would like to assure all our viewers that we at Anfield are professionals and thus will never tire of spanking Chelski in the Champions’ League semi-finals.
We would also like to point out to our viewers that it is not our fault Chelski suck. Like many of our viewers we are disgusted that sub standard teams such as Chelski are allowed to participate in such a prestigious competition.
We would like to remind our viewers that winning the Champions’ League requires pedigree, power, passion, panache, pride and a Liverbird on your chest.
YNWA
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Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 3:50 PM
Date: Today, Friday April 18th 2008
Time: 1400 GMT, 1700 Nairobi, 1600 Sweden, San Francisco 0700, New York 1000, New Delhi 1930
Venue: http://irc2.globalvoicesonline.org/chat/irc.cgi
This afternoon, I am talking part in and helping host a Rising Voices chat on the HIV/AIDS and Citizen Media, to which you are all invited. The main chat host is Serina (Kipepeo Nyeusi). Rising Voices is the outreach arm of Global Voices. Rising Voices aims to extend the benefits and reach of citizen media by connecting online media activists around the world and supporting their best ideas.
Recently Kenya has made big strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS for example in 2006 the estimated adult HIV prevalence rate was 5.!% down from a peak of 9% in 1997/1998. The number of annual deaths from HIV/AIDS in Kenya has dropped from a peak of 120,000 in 2003 to 85,000 in 2006. ART programmes have averted about 57,000 deaths since 2001.
However the still much to do and 85,000 people is a lot of people.
(Figures from National HIV Prevalence in Kenya written by The National Aids Control Council and STD Control Programme. Nairobi, Kenya June 2007.)
What can we as bloggers/readers of blogs/generators and users of citizen media do to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS? As they saying goes, we may not all be infected but we are all affected. Please note the examples I give are from Kenya as that is the country I know best, but this chat is open to everybody and I see from the Rising Voices email list that some of our brothers and sisters in Latin America will be joining us which is brilliant. This chat is open to all!
Please join us today at: 14.00 GMT for our online chat.
Date: Today, Friday April 18th 2008
Time: 1400 GMT, 1700 Nairobi, 1600 Sweden, San Francisco 0700, New York 1000, New Delhi 1930
Venue: http://irc2.globalvoicesonline.org/chat/irc.cgi
HIV/AIDS & Citizen Media: Proposed Agenda:
- Organization Involvement – What we hear, what we see, how we perceive it
- Importance of Citizen Media
- How can we ensure we focus on stories that main stream media avoids?
- How do we ensure that we focus on the human element of the story?
- Should our main role be telling the story or empowering those affected to use the tools we are using to tell their stories direct?
- What can we learn from others experiences on different parts of the planet?
- Technicalities / Technical challenges
- How do we select whom to approach to case studies for the project?
- How do we approach those we select?
- How do we deal with possible initial suspicion?
- How do we deal with language barriers?
- What computing tools are available?
- How can we best utilise these tools?
- Do these tools have any cost implications?
- Legal Issues
- What steps will we take to ensure we have consent from third parties documented?
- Will material be covered by copyright?
- If so who will own the copyright?
See you there!
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Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 1:34 PM
The world did not come to a crashing halt at the beginning of March 2008. This would not be significant if it were not that in January and February 2008 many people in Kenya wrote, spoke and acted so irresponsibly that I could only conclude that they expected the world to come to a halt or at least to go through some great cosmic ctrl-alt-del sequence which would result in collective memory loss leading us all to forget what they said, wrote, did. But the world did not come to an end at the beginning of March 2008 and as I said at the beginning of the year, many people would look back at their words and actions and wish that the world would forget. Not so.
I have just driven down Ngong Road, in the heart of Nairobi, at noon on a Thursday and the road is practically empty. You may remember that this is not the first time this year that roads in Nairobi are clear of traffic, and perhaps more significantly, clear of any public transport, in the middle of the day. We have been here before. But this time it is different and this difference is what highlights the hypocrisy in Kenya today, which will make many people wish that Kenyans would forget their irresponsible words and actions.
This week Kenya is suffering (again) under the actions of the barbaric Mungiki militia. An illegal group whose preferred modus operandi includes, but is not restricted, to beheadings, forced female circumcision, public transport and rent extortion.
Mungiki has been around for a while (for some background information please read Kenyan Pundit’s post which links articles on Mungiki) and the group has been influential for a while. For example you could ask anybody who was student at JKUAT during the time of the 2002 Kenyan general election about the role played by Mungiki in Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential campaign and you will hear some interesting stories. (JKUAT lies on the road between Nairobi and Uhuru’s constituency).
I remember driving up to JKUAT in August 2002 when election fever was rising to pick a friend who was studying there and driving into the heart of one of Uhuru’s roadside campaign rallies where Mungiki provided the “security”. They had completely taken over the whole road from Githurai to Thika and to say they were intimidating is to say the least.
What I like about Mungiki (and this is perhaps their only positive characteristic) is that in the reaction to their latest activities Mungiki helps expose the hypocrisy in Kenyan society today.
Take as a first example the reaction of the Kenyan police. In the past three months we have seen first hand and up close the brutality of the Kenya Police towards Kenya citizens who were trying to march peacefully and legally towards Uhuru Park in protest against having their votes stolen. Even non partisan groups were unable to march. A women’s peace group which had organised authorization from the Minister of Internal Security, from the Provincial Administration and had informed the police, were greeted with a ring of police officers telling them their peace match had been cancelled at the last minute when they were just about to set off.
Time and time again Kibera would be ringed by heavily armed police and you would be lucky to make it on to Ngong Road leave alone get anywhere near town. I recorded a show down between the police and ODM supporters in Hurlingham where an army of police officers was deployed to ensure that ODM supporters get nowhere near the city centre. Similar shows of force by the police were deployed on Thika Road and Jogoo Road as the police moved swiftly to ensure that all major roads into the city were in their control. The same occurred in cities and towns across Kenya.
How time changes things. Two months ago Ngong Road was empty because of a heavy police presence and their indiscriminate use of force (including live bullets). Today Ngong Road is empty as Public Service Vehicle owners withdraw their vehicles from the streets because the police cannot stop the Mungiki thugs who demand over 90% of each vehicles earning and burn your matatu/bus if you refuse to comply. You could say that in both cases the police are responsible for empty streets.
In a sentence: two months ago Ngong Road was empty due to a large police presence, this week Ngong Road is empty because the police is conspicuously absent.
Why is it then that the same police force that cracked down on the peaceful protests in the past couple of months are reluctant to take on a group that has openly challenged them to armed warfare?
I do not buy the popular opinion of the day that Mungiki caught the police napping, that the police had no idea what was about to happen. Come on now. Security analysts reveal on TV that the police received calls as early as 5am from members of the public who had seen Mungiki members begin their activities of destruction, 10am the police were yet to respond. This is the same police force that sent lorries packed with police in riot gear into Kibera on Saturday when a rumor went around that perhaps some people were considering starting a demonstration to protest at the lack of a power sharing agreement.
Internal Security Permanent Secretary, Mr Cyrus Gituai, told The Standard that the police had expected Mungiki to strike on Monday at 6am, but instead went on the rampage at 3am, three hours earlier.
So the police decided to stay in bed until 5am or what? Come on now.
These double standards are by no means restricted to the police.
For instance, why is it that some bloggers/commentators who were complaining about the post election violence in general and the inconvenience of disrupted public transport in particular, were largely silent on the violence Mungiki perpetrated BEFORE the elections and are silent on the violence and disruption perpetrated by the same thugs this week? Why is it that those same people who were cursing Raila for not controlling the thugs in Rift Valley are now silent? Have you noticed how the responsibility for the violence two months ago was laid squarely in Raila’s lap individually, “Kenya is burning”, we were told, “because Raila is power hungry”. I wait to hear where they will appropriate blame this time round but I suspect they will remain silent or those who do speak out will blame, “the entire political class” which of course includes Raila. That is the duplicity that Mungiki exposes.
That is not to say that the political class is not implicated as well.
Why are politicians who have been screaming (rightly) that the police should get to the bottom of the post election violence are now screaming that the police should “negotiate” with Mungiki? Why not extend this call for negotiations to include other militia groups such as the Saboti Land Defence Force for example?
Why is that politicians who were quick to call for the annihilation of any protestors in Rift Valley and Nyanza are now going to great lengths to explain that Mungiki rises out of a disadvantage upbringing. Aren’t many of the youth who rampaged against the government in Rift Valley disadvantaged as well? If Mungiki revolts because it is up against the wall with nothing to lose doesn’t this extend to youth from other communities? Why call for the arrest of youth in Rift Valley with no mention of their grievances yet call for negotiations with Mungiki and demand that the police investigate their grievances?
Lastly, why are those who cheered when the army moved against the Saboti Land Defence Force not calling for the army to deployed against Mungiki? If indiscriminate killing is seen as viable method to bring about peace in the Mt. Elgon region why is not also being practised in Kibaki’s hometown which has been under attack by Mungiki?
I will let you draw your own conclusions to these questions. The duplicity and hypocrisy displayed on this would be laughable if it was not so serious. What we do know is that when Mungiki falls there will be tremors all the way to the top of Kibaki’s administration according to the BBC. (To be fair I should mention that Kibaki’s Court Jester issued a statement in response to the BBC report.
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Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 2:01 PM
A while ago the East African blogosphere was rocked with controversy that began when a Kenyan blogger called the Tanzania president, Jakaya Kikwete, a “dumb-ass bitch”. Some Tanzanian bloggers took exception to this insult and stated so in their blogs. In return some Kenyan bloggers took exception to the Tanzanian bloggers taking exception and the KenyaUnlimited aggregator was full of posts quoting Voltaire (which was bizarre in itself as surely someone who complains about your insult has as much right to be heard as you do with your original insult).
Throughout the year as I continued to interact with Tanzanian bloggers I came to learn that a significant number of them (Tanzanian bloggers) do not have much confidence in Kikwete and many of them view his presidency, to put it politely, as a disaster, especially when they reflected on his economic policies.
This raised a number of questions in my mind.
Firstly, if these Tanzanian bloggers are not at all impressed with Kikwete’s presidency why did they take such strong exception to an insult lobbed his way by an insignificant and inarticulate Kenyan blogger?
Secondly, why did the Kenyan blogosphere find it so hard to understand why the Tanzanian bloggers were outraged by an insult to their president?
Is it because Kenyans have thicker skin, are mentally stronger and are used to verbal sparing and thus can roll with the punches?
Perhaps.
Is it because Tanzanians are more eloquent, more mature and civilised and thus will not stand for insults?
Perhaps.
My understanding of why these two siblings, Kenyans and Tanzanians, could disagree so fundamentally on this issue can be summed up in one word.
Statesmanship.
In a sentence: the history and tradition of statesmanship within the Tanzanian ruling elite, and the complete lack of statesmanship within the Kenyan ruling elite.
At the risk of launching a Platonic argument of gigantic dimensions let me define it thus (quoting Wikipedia);
To rule or have political power called for a specialized knowledge. The statesman was one who possesses this special knowledge of how to rule justly and well and to have the best interests of the citizens at heart.
As Kenyans I believe we find it hard to understand the notion of statesmanship, as it implies that those in the political elite in Kenya should be driven to implement policies that have the best interests of the citizens of Kenya at heart.
How can we understand this when the Kibaki government claimed it did not have enough money to build the 500,000 homes it promised in its election manifesto of 2002 yet somehow managed to find USD 12m to spend on new cars (enough to send 25,000 children to school for eight years)?
How can we understand this when the Moi regime fleeced the country of at least US $600 million in less than three years in what we now call the Goldenberg Scandal?
How can we understand this when the extended Kenyatta family alone owns an estimated 500,000 acres — approximately the size of Nyanza Province — according to estimates by independent surveyors and Ministry of Lands officials, making them the senior members of what Michael Mundia Kamau, inspirationally, calls the KenMoiKib Farm?
Our three presidents to date have failed the statesmanship test and failed it badly. Even Jomo Kenyatta, whom increasingly seems to be loved more by non-Kenyans than Kenyans in much the same way that love for THE Emperor seems to grow the further you get away from Ethiopia, is no longer spared. I can even go as far as stating that if you stand on any street corner in central Nairobi and shouted in a loud voice, “Kibaki/Moi/Kenyatta is a dumb-ass bitch” you would be ignored at the worst but probably be applauded by one or two people. Now imagine standing at the corner of a street in Dar-es-salaam and shouting “Nyerere is a dumb-ass bitch”. If you managed to get out alive and made it to Nairobi I would probably finish you off myself and I am Kenyan. Why?
Nyerere was a Statesman.
True his economic policies may not have been the best but here was a man who was big enough to know that the presidency in itself did not make him who he was. Here was a man big enough to walk away into retirement to sit under his tree in his shamba and enjoy his family. Here was a man who understood that the most powerful thing he could do was to give up power.
The greatest disservice Kenyatta did to Kenya was dying in office, during the election of 1975 when it was clear he was no longer the force he used to be he could have choose to step aside and step into greatness. He did not, 3 years later he was dead, and this in turn gave birth to the president-for-life syndrome which manifests itself today in Moi still aching for power after 25 years in StateHouse and which made Kibaki think he would be failure if he had lost his presidency in the general election 3 months ago despite a career in politics of over 40 years.
How can you be a megalomaniac in Tanzania when Nyerere was not? How can you claim the presidency as your birth right in Tanzania when the father of the nation walked away for it to give room to others?
This is what the Kenyan blogosphere failed to understand at the time. That while Tanzanians may not be too impressed with their current president, they are VERY proud of their institution of Presidency.
Of course statesmanship is not restricted to men. One of the most enduring images of the Kenyan post-election crisis was of Grace Machel during a tour of Internal Displaced People camps hugging a woman closely, whispering words of comfort as the woman wept and wept. Here was Grace Machel, the freedom fighter, former minister, and campaigner for children and for human rights, reaching out and bringing some humanity to IDP camps. Where was Kenya’s grossly overpaid First Lady at the time? Busy slapping Members of Parliament who had the audacity to suggest that her husband should get serious about sharing power. There are many things you can call Lucy Kibaki but not even the most rabid Kibaki supporter would call her a statesman. On the other side of the coin, you just try calling Graca Machel a dumb-ass bitch and see where that leaves you.
While the eyes of the nation were focused to Kofi Annan who lead the team of Eminent Person conducting the mediation in Kenya following the post election violence, the rest of team of eminent persons was often over looked, Graca Machel and Benjamin Mkapa. Mkapa is a Tanzanian diplomat and like Nyerere a former Tanzanian president. You see people; there IS life after Statehouse. Here is man who was President for 10 years, handed over at the end of his term and is now a Statesman who helped us resolve our election disputes, happy to sit in the background and immerse himself in the nitty gritty while the world’s media focused on Annan. That is an example that our political elite should be following. How many countries do you think would welcome Kibaki or Moi to help mediate their election disputes? Not many, unless they were planning on, “doing a Kibaki”.
On Sunday before Kibaki read out the list of his new bloated and grossly immoral cabinet he had the audacity, the AUDACITY, to stand there and brag to Kenyans about the “statesmanship and sacrifice” the political elite had displayed. Kibaki seriously needs to be reconnected with reality. Shuttling between Statehouse and State Lodges, hiding behind his security detail, and pushing Kenya to the edge is NOT statesmanship leave alone sacrifice. He also said the new cabinet, “underscores our nation’s leadership to put the collective needs of the country above everything else.” Is there anyone who thinks a bloated government and expensive cabinet is what our country needs? Mwalimu Mati writes on exactly why this is a disaster.
As Kenyans we have to address this issues quickly. Statesmanship is not an option. Statesmanship is vital for a healthy African society. Statesmanship is African to its very core. Without Statesmen we will not progress.
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Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 4:02 PM
White African and Afromusing have informative posts on how you can vote for the Ushahidi project on the Netsquared mash up challenge. If you had voted before, please go and vote again. This project really is ground breaking. Let me tell you a little bit why.
Report Acts Of Violence In Kenya
At the end of January I attended a media forum organised by Internews Network. The forum was for the media to examine the way local and international media covered the post election violence. A self-assessment session. It was a fascinating way to spend a morning. The room was filled with hacks. Newspaper journalists, TV reporters, radio presenters, from the broad spectrum of media houses in Kenya. The big national broadcasters, the vernacular radio stations, the religious radio stations, and yes even the bloggers. I was invited to attend and to speak as a blogger and I gave a presentation on the way the blogosphere had covered the election and the post election violence.
In a session towards the end of the forum the discussion moved on to what we all could have done better in terms of our coverage. One statement that stood out for me was a comment that a lot of the reporting of the violence by Kenyan reporters/bloggers read like it was done by strangers. Kenyan reporters/bloggers were writing about things in their own country like strangers. For example, we all talked about Rift Valley militias like they are some kind of abstract phenomenon. Who are these militias? Who is funding them? Where do they live? What were the doing the day before the election? What do they call themselves? What are the names of the members? As Kenyans journalists they felt that these are the things they should have covered from the beginning.
The same applies to the victims. We always complain about how Africans are reduced to statistics. Remember when Al Qaeda bombed the US Embassy in Nairobi and western media reports named the foreigners who died and left out the Kenyans, or when flight KQ507 went down and we heard international media reports which named a list of nationalities and ended with “the rest were Africans”? Well here we are in the middle of the greatest crisis our country has ever faced and we couldn’t even name our own victims.
A few reporters spoke out against this criticism. One reporter said that as a Kikuyu woman she would have to be mad to approach the family of a victim of “stray” police bullet to ask his name as the public felt the police were working to protect the Kikuyu, and would have to be completely bananas to try and interview members of any Rift Valley militia who were busy running around rounding up Kikuyus. Valid points perhaps but they were quickly knocked down. After all, the moderator remarked, as professional reporters you must have more than one way to find information. Just because you can not approach the family directly is no excuse not to be able to identify the victim of violence or to do a story on the identities behind the militias.
A couple of people raised another concern, that it was completely unrealistic for us to think that it is possible to name all or even most of those victims of violence. They felt that it was nice in theory but in reality it was unworkable. An Indian journalist who has been based in Kenya for the last few years as a foreigner correspondent told us about the example of Calcutta.
After riots in Calcutta left over 3000 people dead one of the newspapers, I think it was the Calcutta Daily Telegraph, launched a project to name each of those victims and it succeeded. 3000 people and they wrote all their stories. If they can, we can too.
It is unacceptable that people, our people, remain numbers. It is unacceptable that as Kenyans we can feel comfortable in the continuing anonymity of the ultimate victims of the post election violence. And let us be honest, we are cowards if we continue in this way.
It takes guts to look death in the face, to find out whom this person was, where they worked, where they went to school, to hold their children, to speak to their partners. To find out what their dreams were. It takes guts but it is necessary.
Take the example of James Odhiambo:
- James is 24 years old.
- James is the sole breadwinner for his family.
- James works at a petrol station as an attendant.
- One of his colleagues at the petrol station is called Brian Oluoch.
- James was killed in Lurambi at the junction on the way to Shikoti, Kakamega in Western province, Kenya.
- According to eyewitnesses he was shot by the GSU.
- The police were unable to pick James’ body, as they did not have enough fuel for their vehicle.
- James Odhiambo was buried on Sunday 13th January 2008.
- James was buried in Homa Bay, Nyanza province.
- Brian and other friends from the area travelled to Homa Bay to comfort the family.
- If you would like to help the family directly you can contact Brian on +254.724.912.015
The national media declined to run James’ story so how do I know about it? I know because Mr.Michael Arunga, who works for World Vision in Darfur, was on holiday in the area at the time and took pictures, which he allowed Afromusing to post on her flickr account. Afromusing then wrote a blog post with all the information above she put on her personal blog and on Ushahidi.
Report Acts Of Violence In Kenya
In one blog post of 399 words James went from being just another number. James went from being just another dead body in the “over 1000 causalities” of the post election violence in Kenya to being James. Afromusing’s post is disturbing and saddening. It is also powerful and necessary. Afromusing’s blogpost and Michael’s pictures humanised the death of a young man, personalised it, and made it real and relevant.
This is why the Ushahidi project is so relevant and so necessary. We as Kenyans are guilty of having short-term memories. Yesterday’s villains are today’s heroes. We sweep bad news and difficult decisions under the carpet; we do not confront the issues in our society and get shocked when the country erupts as it did two months ago. Ushahidi gives everybody, anybody, the opportunity to get his or her experience recorded. Through SMS, through email, through the internet, through meeting an NGO worker who will write down what happened and share it with us. Ushahidi is a project that has to be owned by those who use it; they have to believe in it. They have to trust it; they have to feel a part of it. Ushahidi is not the end but the beginning. We have the information, we share it, and people will run with it. Hopefully we will get the stories behind the numbers. Just as with James we can inject a little humanity back into the lives of these people who were killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The project is recording not just incidents of deaths, but of all the violence. The project is not recording just the negative stories but highlighting the doves who are working for peace in our communities as well. And the project needs all your help to survive. Ushahidi needs your help, needs your votes. Please vote for this project on the Netsquared challenge. You can find full details on how to do this here. After you vote, please get involved by submitting your experiences and those of the people around you to the database. Instructions on how to register to vote are here and here.
Thank you.
Report Acts Of Violence In Kenya
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 2:05 PM
Is there any person in America who hasn’t heard of Barack Obama?
Yes … and his name is DMX.
Q: Are you following the presidential race?
DMX: Not at all.
Q: You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
DMX: His name is Barack?!
Q:Barack Obama, yeah.
DMX: Barack?!
Q:Barack.
DMX: What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?
Q:Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
DMX: Barack Obama?
Q:Yeah.
DMX: What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.
Q: You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
DMX: I ain’t really paying much attention.
Q:I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black …
DMX: Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.
Q: So you’re not following the race. You can’t vote right?
DMX: Nope.
Halfway through this interview it becomes pretty clear that this cartoon lives in his own world. Thank goodness I grew out of gangsta rap a while ago!
Via Kottke
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 9:56 AM
God really must be Liverpool fan.
Destroy Arsenal in the quarter-final
Demolish Chelsea in the semi-final (again) HAHAH ROTFLMBBAO
HUMILIATE ManUtd in the final
You couldn’t ask for a better end to a season
We’ve won it 5 Times
We’ve won it 5 Times
In Istanbul
We Won it 5 Times
We’ll Win It 6 Times
We’ll Win It 6 Times
In magic Moscow
We’ll Win it 6 Times
It’s only on Loan
It’s only on Loan
In magic Moscow
We’ll Bring It Back Home
Meanwhile …
From: Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya (NBO)
To: Moscow, Domodedovo Airport, Russia (DME)
To: Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya (NBO)
Passengers: 1 Adult
Cabin: Economy
Departing: Tuesday, 20 May, 2008
Returning: Thursday, 22 May, 2008
Price: USD 1936.00
WHOA - perhaps I’ll watch it on TV instead.
(Yo Nyiloh, this time it’s on!)
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Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 8:03 PM
The last two months have been eye opening not just for me but for all Kenyans and all friends of Kenya. I have been shocked by some of the nonsensical narrow minded views that swept through the country, and it has to be said, through the blogs. Undoubtedly some friendships will never be the same again as people could not help but show their true colours.
However, the blessing of being so involved in the response to the post election crisis that engulfed Kenya is that for all the nonsensical, narrow minded views that I encountered, for every person I came across who was hell bent on stirring up hate, I would find ten people who would do anything to pull the country back from the brink.
Patriots would put careers on the line, friendships on the line, family relationships on the live and others even put their lives on the line to stand up and be counted as an agent for peace not for division. While some bloggers would announce that they could never take someone from another tribe home to their parents, other Kenyans were busy organising a media event where couples with each partner from a different tribe would publicly declare that they will not be part of any nonsense which insisted they leave their partners to show their loyalty to tribe.
Apart from the personal relationships another trend which warmed my heart was that professionals would rise up and find ways through which they could utilise their professional services to help save the country. A group of writers gathered and formed the Concerned Kenyan Writers coalition which aims to use writing skills to humanise the crisis, the techie community such as Skunkworks offered technical IT and ICT support to the relief efforts, the legal fraternity came up with similar initiatives, the top musicians and producers in the country got into the studios, journalists as well. Bloggers usually wear more than one hat and in each of the other groups mentioned above you will find bloggers.
Some initiatives are blog driven, they were born in blogs and grew in the blogs, were lead by bloggers and publicised by blogs. They are blogger lead and blogger dominated. One such project which I am honoured to work on is the Ushahidi project which was born out of Kenyan Pundit thinking out loud on her blog and Hash hearing those voices and running with them. The site was born on the blogs and brought in to existence by David Kobia, a guy who has been a huge supporter of Kenyan blogs and bloggers, in JUST TWO DAYS. I am yet to hear of another project that launched so successfully, that proved to be so ground breaking that was launched in such a short period of time. Kenyans across the globe showing what can happen with cooperation and commitment.
Ushahidi is the Kiswahili word for witness.
From Hash
Ushahidi.com is a tool for people who witness acts of violence in Kenya in these post-election times. You can report the incident that you have seen, and it will appear on a map-based view for others to see.
From Kenyan Pundit
So what’s Ushahidi.com about… (for those who don’t know Kiswahili, ushahidi is the Swahili word for witness). The website was mainly set up to document incidents of violence, lotting etc. during the crisis (and soon to follow - information about ways to help on a micro-level). The website is still very much a work in progress and will be updated as we go along.
We believe that the number of deaths being reported by the government, police, and media is grossly underreported. We also don’t think we have a true picture of what is really going on - reports that all have us have heard from family and friends in affected areas suggests that things are much worse than what we have heard in the media.
From Afromusing
We want to continue mapping not only the violence, but also the ‘doves’ or peace efforts happening in Kenya. The last two months have been traumatic to our collective psyche, and we would like to be well equipped to continue this important project. While we will not hide from the trauma of the events; we want make Ushahidi even more relevant to other countries in Africa.
Since the launch of ushahidi the support from within the blogging community and from the main stream media as well, has been phenomenal. I have lost count of the number of radio and print interviews that have come my way because of interest in the project. Now
Ushahidi needs your help again.
Ushahidi has been entered in to the
$100,000 Netsquared Mashup Challenge for further development. This is big in very many ways. It helps secure the future of the project and it helps secure the independence of the project, it allows the project to grow beyond Kenya, it give the opportunity for a powerful and increasingly necessary tool to achieve its potential.
Please show your support for Ushahidi by voting for the project on Netsquared you have to register to vote, registration takes less time than it took you to read this sentence and voting takes even shorter. Help us to drive this project forward. Please read and link Hash’s post on the Ushahidi NetSquared challenge and remember to VOTE!
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Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 2:08 PM
Congratulations to the Pharaohs Kings of Africa once again after beating Cameroon 1-0 in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.
I was lucky to have the pleasure, for the first time, of watching the final of a major football tournament in one of the countries that was contesting that final. It was not planned, it was a complete fluke as I just happened to be in transit in Cairo between Istanbul and Nairobi. My six hours in transit coincided with the match. I walked around Cairo International Airport looking for a TV screen that was not showing the usual airport advertising pap and for a while I was scared that I would miss the game. How ridiculous that would that have been. Luckily sanity prevailed and most of the screens switched over to Accra as soon business began at the Ohene Djan stadium. Before kick off the airport staff were all polite and diplomatic when I asked, cheekily, if they would support Cameroon. Once the match began it was another story. Shouts, screams, hands in the air, fists shaken at TV screens. Yes indeed, football at its most passionate.
While I was watching the game I was struck again by the immense power of sport. Especially at international level. To put it plainly I sincerely believe that if Kenya had qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations and had done well in the tournament the violence that rocked Kenya would not have been intense as it was. Imagine a commanding Luhya player (the captain naturally) a towering midfield destroyer, passing the ball to Luo player, the creative and flamboyant midfield maestro, passing the ball to a lanky but lethal Kalenjin striker, who blasts in the winning goal cheered by his Kikuyu goalkeeper. The unity the players would have to show on the pitch to be successful would serve as a constant and real reminder of the unity Kenyans would have to show off the pitch to be successful.
This is not just sentimental hogwash. in the run up to the 2006 World Cup with Ivory Coast bleeding from civil war Drogba fell on his knees live on TV and sent out an emotional appeal for the warring factions to lay down their arms. It would be naive to claim that Drogba’s gesture ended the civil war. It would be equally naive to pretend that Drogba’s gesture did not have any effect at all. “All the players hated what was happening to our country and reaching the World Cup was the perfect emotional wave on which to ride.” Togo and Angola qualifying for the same World Cup in German helped heal both nations after decades of civil war. Beyond Africa as well there are numerous examples of the power of sport to unite a nation. Remember how the then new country of Croatia, which gained independence only 7 years earlier, played excellent football to reach the semi finals of the World Cup in France 1998 uniting their country in a sense of pride? Or how much the symbolism North and South Korea marching together at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games (although they did not compete in joint teams) meant to their people?
Sport and especially team sport is a democratic and universal symbol of nationhood which becomes even more important in a country like Kenya where most of the other symbols of nationhood are inaccessible to ordinary citizens.
Two weeks ago a special friend invited me to watch a preseason rugby friendly between the University of Nairobi’s Mean Machine RFC and Mwamba RFC, one of Kenya’s oldest rugby clubs. As with most preseason games the match was a relaxed affair played in a lively spirit. After the game the players from both sides gathered in the centre of the pitch and knelt together in prayer.
This is a regular ritual conducted at the end of many rugby games. This time, however, it was wonderful to see the symbolism of a united Kenya across ethnic, religious, economic, political lines.
Click here for a larger image.
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Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 10:49 AM
A few years ago I posted a comment on a friend’s blog (which sadly no longer exists) in which I remarked that the Kenyan Blogs Webring reminds me of a typical African extended family. Fluctuating from supportive to destructive, from connected to disjointed, from sane and united to crazy and dysfunctional. Those family members who always believe that there is someone in the family out to get them and thus they constantly whisper conspiracy theories while looking over their shoulders? Well KBW has them too. Luckily we have a lot of sane, sensible and funny family members too.
Every once in while I get reminded that some people have way too much time on their hands! In the past 12-18 months I have been slowly switching webhosting companies as I search for more reliable, personal and courteous service. The webhosting company I left was called BlueHost
and the webhosting company I now use is called A Small Orange.
(Some of you sharp ones will have figured out by now where this post is going!)
Bluehost’s primary colour is, naturally, blue. A Small Orange’s primary colour is, naturally, orange. Kibaki’s Party of National Unity primary colour is blue and Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement primary colour is orange. If this was not proof enough that I am Odinga’s number one fanboy, the mere fact that I choose a Webhosting company with the word orange in its name and now display a button with an orange is proof enough for some that mentalacrobatics.com is embedded within Odinga’s camp. Hehe.
People, sometimes a webhost is a webhost and not a declaration of political affiliation! Honest!
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Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 at 3:42 PM
Once again the whole country has stopped as people gather around TV screens and radios. The last time this happened we were engrossed in the first session of the 10th parliament. This time we all waiting to see a press conference called by Kofi Annan’s mediation team at which both Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki are expected to attend. (Thankfully the Official Government Spokesman and his police counterpart, those two reliable beacons of information to some - misinformation to the rest of us, are not scheduled to make an appearance.)
I am watching this from a building which (illegally) overlooks the Department of Defence headquarters on one side and overlooks Nairobi Hospital on another side. It feels right, therefore, to comment on Kenya’s former dictator, Commander –In-Chief of the Armed Forces and President Daniel arap Moi who is lying in one of the beds in the private VIP wing of Nairobi hospital with a needle sticking out of his hand admitted, we were reliably informed by his personal physician yesterday, because of lower back pain.
The chaos that has erupted in Kenya in the past four weeks has some misguided souls crying out for a return to the dark days of Moi’s rule. This would have never happened under Moi, they say, things would have been better under Moi, they cry, Moi should save us, they plead. What nonsense!
Are these the only two options available to Kenyans today? To live under a dictator or, on the other hand, to live in fear as the country burns under an illegitimate president? Are these the only two options? Was this the choice presented to us when we stood for hours to vote in December? NO. Sometimes I wish we had a team of rugby props who could go around the country grab people by the shoulders and shake some sense into them! One of the great victories of the 2007 Kenyan election was the complete and total rejection by the electorate in Rift Valley of Moi’s plans to build a dynasty as each one of his three sons who vied for a parliamentary seat was defeated at the polls. Going back to the dark days of the Moi dictatorship is not an option that should even be entertained. What is wrong with people? This is almost as bad as those crazy (and thankful increasingly isolated) black voices in South Africa who yearn for a return to apartheid. How we as Kenyans used to laugh at that logic, well look who is laughing now.
To be fair it has become increasingly clear that Moi had a much stronger grip on the country than Kibaki ever did. Kibaki’s cheerleaders praised this as part of their boss’ “hands off” style of government. The only problem is that it did not end at hands off, if anything Kibaki’s style of government should be called a “Brain Off” style of government.
The current chaos in Kenya was not triggered because of a failure of democracy; it was triggered by a selfish bunch of arrogant politicians who feel that they have the divine right to rule at any cost and thus trample all over our democracy. If democracy had been respected we would not be where we are now. Do NOT blame democracy for our troubles, blame those who are trying to trample it and thus follow in the footsteps of the lonely and frail man who lies in a hospital not far away from here.
That sad and increasingly pathetic man is not our saviour.
kenyaelection07
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Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Sometimes it feels sweet to be right. Other times it sucks to be right.
In June last year I was heavily criticised for writing a blog post with the title “Suicide Bomber Hits Nairobi” when downtown Nairobi was rocked by an explosion. I had sourced that information from a Reuters report which quoted a policeman saying that the explosion looked like the work of a suicide bomber.
The criticism I received focused on my use of the words “suicide bomber” and centred on the argument that it was irresponsible for me to report the explosion as a bombing until the police had released a statement. I wrote a post titled, “In Defence of Bloggers” in which I argued that in Kenya currently it is COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS to sit around and wait for a statement from the police or indeed from the government. Where was the official police statement on the Mount Elgon clashes and where was the official police statement on the Mungiki beheadings I wondered at the time? I argued that the Official Government Spokesman and Official Police Spokesman are not reliable sources of information. This was obvious to me then, it is obvious to all now.
Kenyan TV has shown clips of young men being gunned down by police and the police spokesman states that he believes the clips have been manipulated to look like something out of “Rambo”. The country is burning and the official Government spokesman went on TV to say that there are a “few skirmishes here and there.”
I am attending a media conference on Wednesday where I will speak on behalf on bloggers and believe me I will repeat that bloggers are the ultimate source of primary information in Kenya today.
And despite my argument being proved right by time (after all those who led the criticism against me then are now leading the insults against the official spokesmen) I wish that we had a mature political system where at least the police would realise that they work not for a single political party or regime. But that they work for the country.
Sometimes it sucks to be right.
kenyaelection07
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Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 6:39 PM
Carrot and stick is an idiom used to refer to the act of rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior. The carrot represents the edible reward, while the stick refers to a punishing switch.
Since the crisis in Kenya exploded a steady stream of prominent Africans has flown into town to try and help kick start talks between the Odinga and Kibaki camps and to help the peace efforts.
My favourite Nobel laureate, Desmond Tutu, arrived and tried to use his considerable moral authority with not much success.
Four retired African Heads of State Former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, former Tanzania President Benjamin Mkapa and former Botwana president Ketimire Masire came to “stand with Kenyan people in times of need” but they too did not have much success and were snubbed by Kibaki.
Up next was a serving head of state. President Kuffor of Ghana arrived in his capacity as head of the African Union to have a go and was instead insulted when the Kibaki’s official spokesman announced that Kuffor had come just to drink a cup of tea with his age mate Kibaki and two ministers, Internal Security Minister Saitoti and Transport Minister Michuki, announced at a press conference that they felt his trip was a waste of time.
Then came former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Kuffor’s fellow country man from Ghana. Suddenly things started moving. Kibaki and Raila meet face to face for the first time since the election, and shook hands in public promising to sit down and talk. Negotiation teams have been announced and perhaps most remarkably considering the treatment his predecessors have had in the past few weeks, Annan has complete access to Kibaki seeing him whenever he needs to.
So what does Annan have that Tutu, Chissano, Kaunda, Mkapa, Masire and Kuffor did not have? Why does Kibaki have to listen to Annan when he ignored the rest and even let his team insult them? Why does Kibaki have to even meet Annan? Simply because he has too, he does not have a choice.
This is why. Having seen Tutu, Chissano, Kanuda, Mkapa, Masire and Kuffor fail Annan did not want to suffer the same fate. He certainly would not stand for being insulted in public like his president was. Annan was already on his way to Kenya when news of Kuffor shabby treatment at the hands of Kibaki’s team came out and he quickly developed a very convenient “flu” which allowed him to postpone his trip to Kenya.
Annan learnt from the rest how entrenched in their relative positions the political camps in Kenya were and how difficult it was to see Kibaki. Annan learnt quickly that there was no point in travelling to Kenya unless he carried with him the threat of sanctions. To put it simply he had to be able to force Kibaki and Raila to meet and talk, he had to have complete access to both Kibaki and Raila and he had to ensure that whatever he said they took very seriously. They would have no option but to talk to him and Kibaki especially would have to realise that this was not business as usual.
In the last 15 - 20 years ever since the environment became sexy and climate change and global warming shot up to the top of the political agenda there has been a concentrated effort to move the United Nations Environmental Programme and United Nations Habitat headquarters from Nairobi. Many European countries want it, the BRIC countries all want it, and many believe that if it was moved to the UN headquarters in New York the environment would feature prominently in international policy. Basically it is all about money. Successive Kenyan governments have always argued that as UNEP is the only UN agency headquartered in a developing country it would send a negative signal to move it from Nairobi. Successive Kenyan governments have also argued that Kenya is an oasis of peace in a troubled region and it was important for the UN to have an international headquarters here.
One major sanction that Kofi Annan brought with him was the threat to move UNEP and UN Habitat headquarters out of Nairobi, within THE NEXT SIX MONTHS! Not next year, not in the distance future, but by July! Non essential UN staff in Nairobi (as well as many diplomatic staff) have not reported back to work and have in effect been on holiday since the week before Christmas. All agencies have contingency plans to evacuate their offices and to make moves permanent. This was not an empty threat from Annan and I bet it is the number one reason Kibaki agreed to meet Raila.
They would not take the carrot offered by Tutu and Kuffor, so Annan swung a stick.
kenyaelection07
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Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 5:40 PM
Every cloud has a silver lining, the saying goes. Tuesday afternoon the dark cloud of an illegitimate presidency in Kenya revealed its silver lining. Democracy hit back hard as Kenya’s 10th parliament convened for the first time. As a proud Kenyan patriot I was pleased that there were no punches thrown in parliament, no unseeingly scenes of honourable members doing what some call pulling a South Korea. It was all very civilised, everybody addressing each other as honourable member this, honourable member that. As a political scientist it was the most drama I have watch in a long time, so many issues to discuss. Rather than deliver a blow by blow account let me highlight a couple of issues I felt were important.
The situation we have in Kenya as it stands is that we have a president who does not have control of parliament. This would not be a big problem if we had a presidential style of government as in the United States where the president and congress regularly come from different parties and those institutions are designed to work separately. However, what we have in Kenya is a ridiculous deformed hybrid of a presidential and parliamentary style of government, where we have an executive president, who is also a member of the legislature and has the right to vote in the legislature and is dependant on it for his agenda to go through, yet sits separate from other members of parliament and is treated as an respected outsider from most proceedings, does not have to justify his actions to parliament and can largely ignore it or bend it to his will as a rubber stamp.
This deformed hybrid of government worked perfectly (from a presidential point of view) up to now as the president has always had control of parliament through his political party. In 2008 we have a situation where the strongest political force in the country, ODM, is not only completely opposed to the president but also considers him illegitimate.
This is not news, ever since Kibaki claimed the presidency he knew that he had fewer members of parliament that those opposed to him. What has been extraordinary to observe in the days since Kibaki rushed to his swearing in ceremony, is that Kibaki has acted like he can simply ignore ODM. Isolated in StateHouse he has acted like he does not have to deal with ODM. Well during the first session of parliament on Tuesday reality hit. For the first time since the election Kibaki came face to face with a group of people who not only think he is illegitimate and stole the election, but also have real power to set up an alternative political power structure. This was shown when ODM managed to get their candidate for Speaker of Parliament, Kenneth Marende, elected over Kibaki’s choice, the former incumbent, Francis Ole Kaparo.
ODM controlling parliament sets up some very interesting and indeed ridiculous scenarios. Kibaki gets to appoint a cabinet and that cabinet has to work through parliament. Yet the majority in parliament is completely opposed to Kibaki’s policies and will do whatever it can to wreck them. Kibaki, if he was thinking straight, could have overcome this by appointing ODM MPs to key cabinet positions. Instead he chose to ignore ODM all together in a move that made no political sense. ODM due to their strength in numbers will control all parliamentary committees. In another ridiculous scenario, some powerful parliamentary committees have a majority of seats reserved for the opposition in an attempt to prevent the largest political party in parliament from dominating all proceedings.
Of course the largest political party in parliament is usually the president’s party. This time however ODM is both the largest political party in parliament AND at the same time is the opposition and therefore, now have the opportunity to completely dominate all aspects of parliament’s proceedings and undermine Kibaki’s agenda. They do not have the two thirds majority required for a vote of no confidence, however, they can, for example, vote down the budget. Then what would Kibaki do? Or they can introduce a private members bill which states that anybody appointed a minister immediately looses 90% of his parliamentary salary. This is not as far fetched as you think. After all today we saw attempts by ODM to have the oath MPs have to take as they are sworn in as unconstitutional! We shall see how this plays out. If you didn’t know why we need a new constitution before then hopefully this political mess has opened your eyes to why we do.
Another aspect of this political situation in the country is that every political move, even when it seems spontaneous and obvious, is calculated. For example, take ODM’s strategy of asking the Speaker to rule the oath MPs have to take during their swearing in as unconstitutional as the MPs have to swear allegiance to the presidency as well as the country and the constitution. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that this Point of Order had no chance of succeeding for a whole variety of reasons and ODM must have known that. So why push it? Perhaps because it gives the new ODM backed Speaker of the House the opportunity to display his impartiality by ruling against ODM in his first ruling?
What I have found completely irritating in the proceedings of today and the past two weeks is Kibaki’s camp continual insistence that, the law or tradition even, be respected at all times. This from a team that continuously broke “little” laws when they felt those laws did not matter much. One example, the law of Kenya states that there shall be no campaigning the day before an election. Basically this law is designed to allow the electorate to vote in peace. It is not the most significant law but it is important. The evening before the country was due to vote in the Constitutional Referendum i.e. well within the final 24 hours, Kibaki went on TV to give an address carried live by the national broadcaster urging Kenyans to vote for his new proposed constitution. A clear and blatant breaking of the law by the person whose team is now shouting obey the law. When you hear ministers who were part of a government that has repeated tried to muzzle the press by amongst other things sending in paramilitary terror squads and burning presses, continuously insist that everyone else must obey the law or take matters to court you can’t help but snort in disgust.
These are the same clowns who were using state resources against the law, mainly vehicles and helicopters, in the just concluded campaigns who are now shouting that the law must be obey. We used to be told a story as children warning against adopting cute little lion cubs. The moral of the story; little lions become big lions and big lions kill. If you were wondering what the story teller was talking about well here is a 21st century adaptation; people who break little laws, will have no problems breaking big laws. Those who ignore a “small” law banning campaigning in the last 24 hours today, steal a “big” election tomorrow.
During the debate in parliament today speaker after speaker on Kibaki’s side urged that tradition be respected. Yet this is the same Kibaki who completely ignored tradition and unilaterally appointed Electoral Commission of Kenya commissioners just two months ago without consulting the opposition ignoring a tradition which was established during the reform talks of 1997 and from which Kibaki directly benefited as a member of the then opposition.
This habit of breaking the law when it suits them and ignoring traditions when it suits them means that there is no way ODM will trust anything Kibaki’s administration will say. This would not matter if Kibaki controlled parliament. Then he could just continue with his policy to ignore ODM. But since he does not and since ODM can claim the mandate of the people, as the have more MPs, it matters a lot.
Many of us who worked tirelessly in the past year urging people to vote ensuring them that their vote matters, that their vote is their voice and that all votes are equal have been completely deflated in the past two weeks. What do you tell someone who voted for the first time and then sees his vote disregarded in blatant rigging? I have been expecting many of the younger voters to come and express their anger at me for getting their hopes up that their vote was as powerful as anyone else’s vote. Instead what I have seen is very encouraging; people are engaged in the political process as never before. For example, earlier on Tuesday a group of youth were busy calculating how many votes you need to be elected Speaker of parliament. At petrol stations you hear debates about whether Nominated MPs are nominated before or after the speaker is elected, people come up to me and ask if there is anything that can prevent Kibaki from stealing all the Nominated MP positions for his own party in defiance of tradition which states the nominated positions are given out in proportion to the number of seats won, and the most requested document request I receive by email these days is for the Constitution. Tuesday’s parliamentary proceedings were broadcast live on TV and the whole country was watching and taking note. When Marende was elected speaker we could hear shouts of celebration from Kibera and Kawangware. This engagement is not exclusive to the middle class. It looks like stealing an election is a fantastic way to get the public engaged in civic education. Now that is a massive silver lining!
(It is now 01.00 and Members of Parliament are still being sworn in? Why the heck don’t these guys start their business day at 09.00 like the rest of the professional world (or at 6am like many of their constituents do)? Don’t worry, Kibaki snuck out a while ago and is probably tucked into bed enjoy a long nights sleep after a hard 5 hour working day.
kenyaelection07
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Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 1:51 AM
Kibaki just named a new cabinet on KBC TV - well part of cabinet anyway.
Highlights
Vice President: Stephen Kalonzo
Michuki downgraded to Transport
I expect the full list will be posted here soon.
kenyaelection07
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Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 5:51 PM
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